ANGUSalive Annual Report 2019-2020

HEALTHY | ACTIVE | CREATIVE

Annual Report 1 April 2019 - 31 March 2020

HEALTHY | ACTIVE | CREATIVE

Contents About Us Chairperson’s introduction.........................................................................................................5 Who we are................................................................................................................................6 Foreword by the Chief Executive.................................................................................................9 Meeting our charitable objectives and demonstrating community benefit................................10 Achievements in our fourth year of operation • Deliver best value and create investment opportunities ....................................................12 • Champion the positive benefits of our services..................................................................20 • Encourage participation for all .........................................................................................28 • Promote a culture of diversity and equality .......................................................................38 Our year at a glance.................................................................................................................42 Achievements in our fourth year of operation - continued • • • • •

Improve outcomes through effective partnerships at local, regional and national levels . ...44 Engage and communicate openly . ...................................................................................52 Recognise the value of our employees ..............................................................................56 Promote use of our spaces as community hubs . ...............................................................60 Ensure strong, transparent governance and demonstrate community benefit ...................66

Partner Focus...........................................................................................................................72 Our Mission..............................................................................................................................73 Support Us...............................................................................................................................74 Case Studies The arrival of Isla and Glen................................................................16 Reducing our carbon footprint..........................................................18 After the Apocalypse.........................................................................24 Helping Angus Move More................................................................26 The perfect place to volunteer...........................................................34 Active Girls Day.................................................................................36 Autism Friendly Activity Hour............................................................40 Chatty Café at Forfar Library..............................................................48 Spotlight on Arbroath Fishing Heritage.............................................50 Taking teams from Good to Great......................................................58 Discovering Ancient Egypt Engagement Programme..........................64

4

Chairperson’s introduction Kenneth Fraser | Chairperson

I

’m delighted to introduce ANGUSalive’s annual report for 2019-20.

Once again I’m so proud to present our achievements over the past year and showcase the various activities, events and services we’ve programmed and presented to help the community of Angus be healthy, active and creative.

You’ll read that a key project for the organisation this year was the completion of the organisational review. This included the transition to an operations team dedicated to delivering the highest quality customer experience and a programming team dedicated to developing and delivering exciting, innovative and highly engaging programmes to encourage participation across Angus.

This review has added strength to our ‘charitable trust’ status ensuring we are sustainable, fit for purpose and are ready to overcome any challenges encountered and take advantage of new opportunities.

Our charitable trust status also enables our organisation to form strong partnerships with other organisations and stakeholders. Some fantastic examples presented in this report includes the funding received to enable us to open a permanent fishing and maritime heritage exhibition at the Signal Tower Museum which included remodelling of the Category A gatehouses to create new exhibition space. This near £110,000 project was part-funded by the North East of Scotland Fisheries Local Action Group (NESFLAG), Museums Galleries Scotland and Arbroath Common Good Fund as well as supported by funding from ANGUSalive.

Another excellent example of partnership working was the introduction of Move More ANGUSalive - a partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support. The programme aims to ensure that people living with cancer are supported to become physically active, before, during and after treatment.

Macmillan Cancer Support has provided ANGUSalive with £120,000 of funding over a three year period to support us to develop a sustainable pathway for anyone living with and beyond cancer to find an activity that is right for them to continue to be active.

We are keen to foster even stronger links with the many partners we work with now as well as establish new ones in the aim of enhancing our services, programming and our people.

Since the formation of ANGUSalive in 2015, the journey has been one of evolution and change.

We have created a workplace culture that encourages a more entrepreneurial approach and we must continue to do this in the future to ensure future services continue to reflect the needs of the communities we serve.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to the support we currently and continue to receive from the local community, Angus Council and our funding partners. Last year we attracted over 2.4 million people though the doors (and gates) of our 34 sites and we hope that support will continue in the months and years to come. It’s essential we can continue our important role in contributing socially and economically to Angus but also to the health and wellbeing of everyone living, working and visiting the county.

5

Who we are The charity ANGUSalive is the culture, sport and leisure trust for the county of Angus and offers residents and visitors to Angus a variety of services which are ‘changing lives by inspiring healthy, active and creative lifestyle choices’ through our sports centres, country parks, theatres and venues, museums, galleries, archives and libraries. As a not-for-profit company, every penny is reinvested back into the communities we serve.

We have five service areas which form our culture, sport and leisure charity: • Libraries • Museums, Galleries & Archives • Sport & Leisure • Countryside Adventure • Theatre & Venues ANGUSalive is led by a Chief Executive and Senior Leadership Team. The Chief Executive reports to the ANGUSalive Board of Directors which comprises of five independent directors and four council directors who are elected members. The Company is governed by its Articles of Association. Angus Council is the sole member of the Company.

ANGUSalive’s core establishment as of 31 March 2020 was 271 employees who together with supply staff and volunteers; were responsible for contributing to the delivery of services to the Angus community.

6

Across the county of Angus we operate a diverse and unique culture, sport and leisure portfolio.

Libraries

Countryside Adventure

• • • • • • • • •

• • • • •

Arbroath Brechin Carnoustie Forfar Kirriemuir Monifieth Montrose Mobile Libraries Home Delivery Service

Museums, Galleries & Archives • Angus Archives, Restenneth Priory by Forfar • Arbroath Art Gallery (within Arbroath Library) • Brechin Town House Museum • Gateway to the Glens Museum, Kirriemuir • Montrose Museum • The Meffan Museum & Art Gallery, Forfar • The Signal Tower Museum, Arbroath We also support volunteers at the Inglis Memorial Library Visitor Centre.

Crombie Country Park Forfar Loch Country Park Glen Doll Ranger Base Monikie Country Park Montrose Basin

Theatre and Venues • • • • • • • •

Arbroath Community Centre Brechin Community Campus Theatre Forfar Community Campus Theatre Inglis Memorial Hall, Edzell Kirriemuir Town Hall Montrose Town Hall Reid Hall, Forfar The Webster Memorial Theatre, Arbroath

Sport & Leisure • • • • • • • •

Arbroath Sports Centre Brechin Community Campus Carnoustie Sports Centre Forfar Community Campus Montrose Sports Centre Saltire Sports Centre, Arbroath Webster’s Sports Centre, Kirriemuir High School Pools, Monifieth and Carnoustie

Offices • Head Office, Forfar

7

“

“

Changing lives by inspiring healthy, active and creative lifestyle choices.

8

Foreword Kirsty Hunter | Chief Executive

W

elcome to our annual report for 2019-20.

It’s been another fantastic and action-packed year across every area of ANGUSalive.

I’d like to say a big thank you first and foremost to my colleagues, the Board of Directors and the many volunteers who continue to work tirelessly to help bring our vision of ‘changing lives by inspiring healthy, active and creative lifestyle choices’ to life. Without you, we wouldn’t be able to deliver the range and quality of culture, sport and leisure services, events and activities that we are able to provide every year.

To help ensure we are a sustainable, adaptable organisation and fit for purpose, 2019-20 saw the completion of our organisational review and the creation of a new structure across the charity. New roles were created to strengthen our programming, operations and customer service.

In order to support our colleagues with this transition as well as improve their knowledge and skills, we ran a variety of training and development sessions working with many partners, including Angus Council, the NHS, Macmillan Cancer Support, Scottish Disability Sport and Police Scotland.

Courses targeted a variety of areas where an opportunity to enhance our customer offering had been identified and covered, for example, Disability Inclusion & Autism Awareness, Violence & Aggression training, and Deaf & British Sign Language training. We helped improve services for people living with Parkinson’s Disease and cancer as well as learning ways to improve employees and members’ mental health.

In partnership with Alliance Leisure, we also delivered customer service training to help everyone working in our sports facility teams provide excellent customer service the ‘ANGUSalive way’.

This investment in our people is also supported by improvements in digital services – to benefit both employees and customers. 2019-20 saw several digital developments including a new workforce management system; a Board Intelligence platform; the roll out of Windows 10 as well as a new website enabling, amongst many functions, the online booking of fitness classes. These digital improvements allowed us to streamline and automate business processes, create efficiencies and improve the customer experience.

Despite the challenges ahead, the changes we’ve implemented to our structure, the investment made in our Renewal & Repair Fund and contributions to our Reserves since 2015, will stand us in good stead for the future. I’m looking forward to working with Dundee and Angus College to provide leadership training to our new Leadership Team; undertake further enhancements in digital with the roll out of a mobile app as well as the introduction of a new customer complaints system.

The road ahead may be bumpy with additional challenges to overcome due to the global coronavirus pandemic. Our new normal will take time to emerge but I remain optimistic that whilst the future will almost certainly look different we can help to shape it. I am also confident our colleagues, our Board of Directors as well as our many partners and the local community, will continue to provide us with their dedication and support in the years ahead for the benefit of Angus.

9

Meeting our charitable objectives and contributing to local outcomes T

he charitable objects of ANGUSalive are recognised by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) under the Charity and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005.

Aligning to our charitable objects and our Articles of Association, ANGUSalive has identified the following strategic aims for the charity: ANGUSalive Strategic Aims 1. Ensure strong, transparent governance and demonstrate community benefit 2. Deliver best value and create investment opportunities 3. Champion the positive benefits of our services 4. Encourage participation for all 5. Promote a culture of diversity and equality 6. Improve outcomes through effective partnerships at local, regional and national levels 7. Engage and communicate openly 8. Recognise the value of our employees 9. Promote use of our spaces as community hubs Demonstrating Community Benefit ith such a comprehensive offering it is impossible to include everything we do across the charity within our review of the year. This report provides an overview of ANGUSalive activities during 2019/20, building on the information contained in our reports from previous years, and demonstrates some of the key benefits delivered to our communities.

W

Community planning provides a focus for partnership working to improve local services, ensuring that they meet the needs of local people, especially for those people who need those services most.

As an active member of the Angus Community Planning Partnership, ANGUSalive contributes to the following community planning priorities for 2017-2020: • Reducing child poverty Eradicate child poverty in Angus by 2030 with activities grouped around three drivers of poverty – income from employment, cost of living and income from social security benefits and benefits in kind.

• Improving mental health and well-being People in Angus can get the right help at the right time, expect recovery and fully enjoy their rights, free from discrimination and stigma.

• Improving accessibility and connectivity The rural nature of Angus presents challenges both in terms of the digital and physical access which if supported will help to reduce inequalities across the whole area.

The table on the opposite page illustrates how our facilities and activities contribute to ANGUSalive’s strategic aims, the community planning priorities and local outcomes.

10

2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 7 7

✔

✔ ✔

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

✔

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

✔ ✔ ✔

✔ ✔

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

✔

✔ ✔ ✔

✔ ✔

✔

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

✔

✔

✔ ✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

ANGUSalive Facilities and Regular Activities ✔ ✔ ✔ 4 Holiday Activities ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ 4 Volunteering Countryside Adventure ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ 4 Country Parks ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ 4 Countryside led Activities ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ 4 Environmental Education ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ 4 Outdoor Education Activities Libraries ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ 9 Libraries Visitors ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ 4 Library led Activities ✔ ✔ 9 ACCESS Enquiries ✔ ✔ 4 Items Borrowed ✔ 9 Peoples’ Network Sessions ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ 9 Guest Wi-Fi Sessions ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ 4 Bookbug Sessions ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ 9 Downloads – e-resources ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ 4 Home/Mobile Delivery Service Museums, Galleries & Archives ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ 4 Museum, Galleries & Archives Visitors ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ 4 Museum, Galleries & Archive led Activities ✔ 4 Collection and Research ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ 4 Museum & Galleries Exhibitions Sport & Leisure ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ 4 Sports Centres Attendances ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ 4 bACTIVE Memberships ✔ ✔ 4 Learn to Swim Programme ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ 4 National Athlete Support ✔ ✔ Angus (NASA) ✔ ✔ ✔ 4 Club Support ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ 4 Community Sport Hubs ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ 4 Football Development ✔ ✔ ✔ 4 Coach Education ✔ ✔ ✔ 5 1:1 Coach Support ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ 5 Buddy Scheme Webster Memorial Theatre & Venues ✔ 4 Performances, Conferences & ✔ ✔ Events at the Webster Theatre ✔ ✔ 4 Venue Hire

An Enhanced Protected and Enjoyed Natural & Built Environment

Safe, Secure, Vibrant & Sustainable Communities

Annual Report Highlights ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ 8 Volunteers Week ✔ ✔ ✔ 8 Mental Health First Aid Training ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ 8 Deaf and British Sign Language training ✔ ✔ ✔ 8 Keep safe initiative at Montrose Library ✔ ✔ 8 Violence and Aggression Training ✔ ✔ ✔ 8 Peer Assessor opportunities ✔ ✔ ✔ 8 Taking teams from Good to Great ✔ ✔ ✔ 9 PAN Disability Football League ✔ ✔ ✔ 9 Discovering Ancient Egypt Engagement Programme 9 Brechin Library Community Chess Club ✔ ✔ 9 Brechin Library Dementia Café ✔ ✔ ✔ 9 Art Moves ✔ ✔ ✔ 9 Get it Loud in Carnoustie Library ✔ ✔ 9 Venue Usage

A Reduced Carbon Footprint

Priority Improved Physical, Mental & Emotional Health & Well-Being

More Opportunities for People to Achieve Success

Local Outcome

Improving Accessibility & Connectivity

Place

Local Outcome

The Best Start in Life for Children

Priority Improving Mental Health & Wellbeing

Skilled & Adaptable Workforce

ANGUSalive Activity

Attractive Employment Opportunities

Priority

Local Outcome

Inclusive & Sustainable Economy

People

Reducing Child Poverty

ANGUSalive Strategic Aim

Safe, Secure, Vibrant & Sustainable Communities

✔ ✔

An Enhanced Protected and Enjoyed Natural & Built Environment

Local Outcome

A Reduced Carbon Footprint

Priority

Economy

Improving Accessibility & Connectivity

More Opportunities for People to Achieve Success

Annual Report Highlights ✔ ✔ ✔ Organisational Review ✔ Digital Services Reducing our carbon footprint ✔ ✔ ANGUSalive Sports Awards 2019 ✔ Arbroath Abbey Regality Register ✔ A venue for weddings ✔ The arrival of Isla and Glen ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ Trip Advisor Customer Service Excellence Award ✔ Helping Angus Move More ✔ Fun in Athletics Festival and Giant Heptathlon ✔ ✔ Go Swim ✔ ✔ Angus Glens Walking Festival ✔ Railways of Angus ✔ Macmillan in the Libraries ✔ ✔ ✔ An annual spectacular ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ Bookbug bag gifting ✔ After the Apocalypse ✔ ✔ ✔ Summer Reading Challenge - encouraging reading for all! ✔ ✔ Festive Fun Weekends ✔ Summer Athletics (Run, Jump, Throw) Programme ✔ Walking Sports ✔ ✔ Para Sport Festival ✔ Kirriemuir’s Ghost Walk ✔ Dementia Memory Box ✔ ✔ Temporary Exhibitions Programme ✔ Partnership with Southesk Primary BBC Virtual Reality taster sessions ✔ ✔ Offering something for everyone at our Theatre and Venues ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ The perfect place to volunteer ✔ ✔ Active Girls Day ✔ ✔ Expanding our fleet for inclusive cycling ✔ ✔ ✔ Disability Inclusion and Autism Awareness Training ✔ ✔ Autism Friendly Activity Hour ✔ ✔ Adult Reader Development Strategy Group ✔ ✔ Books with a Voice ✔ Introducing mindfulness sessions ✔ Supporting people with Parkinson’s Disease ✔ Swimming Development Group ✔ Activities from Montrose Basin ✔ ✔ Discovering Ancient Egypt exhibition ✔ ✔ Spotlight on Arbroath Fishing Heritage at Signal Tower Museum ✔ ✔ Pop-up-Exhibition J.M.W. Turner Watercolour STM ✔ ✔ Chatty Café at Forfar Library ✔ ✔ Customer Feedback ✔ Walking Sports

Improved Physical, Mental & Emotional Health & Well-Being

Local Outcome

The Best Start in Life for Children

Priority

Attractive Employment Opportunities

Skilled & Adaptable Workforce

Inclusive & Sustainable Economy

Place

Improving Mental Health & Wellbeing

People

Local Outcome

ANGUSalive Activity

Reducing Child Poverty

ANGUSalive Strategic Aim

Priority

Economy

✔

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

11

Deliver best value and create investment opportunities Deliver best value for every pound invested in the Trust; including generating investment opportunities for the development and improvement of cultural, leisure and community services.

BEST VALUE Organisational Review n April 2017 the ANGUSalive Board of Directors approved a full organisational review as part of a wider strategy to deliver our vision of ‘changing lives by inspiring healthy, active and creative lifestyle choices’.

I

Service review teams and operational reviews were established.

Mechanisms for engaging with employees were developed such as regular employee bulletins, a list of frequently asked questions and interview workshops. Regularly scheduled Employee Forum meetings enhanced communication between management and employees. A steering group which included trade

union representation met six weekly to oversee the organisational review and reports are submitted to the Board of Directors on a regular basis.

Whilst some elements of the review were implemented in 2018, the majority of our organisational review was implemented in 2019 to ensure the charity is sustainable and fit for purpose.

This included the transition to an operations team dedicated to delivering the highest quality customer experience and a programming team dedicated to developing and delivering exciting, innovative and highly engaging programmes to encourage participation across Angus.

Phase 1.2 Operations Sports Centres Implemented - 01 July 2019 Phase 1.3 Operational Review Libraries Implemented - 01 December 2019 Phase 1.3 Operational Review Museums Implemented - 01 November 2019 New staffing levels and rotas were implemented to support the new employee structures and operational arrangements (revised opening hours were introduced as part of phase 1.1 in 2018.

Phase 1.3 Countryside Adventure & Programming Service Development & Programming, Countryside Adventure and Venue Supervisory Roles Implemented 01 October 2019 Appointments were made through internal recruitment within the existing team and any resultant vacancies went to external recruitment.

The new Marketing and Communications Team was effective from 1 January 2020.

12

Digital Services here have been several digital developments during 2019/20.

The investment in technology has allowed us to streamline and automate business processes, create efficiencies, improve customer experience and meet customer demand.

T

Our new website was officially launched on 15 May 2019 offering a strong image-led, clean and responsive design. The website allows users to have an engaging, informative and fun experience, exploring what ANGUSalive has to offer. The site showcases the good work we do across all our service areas for the communities of Angus.

As well as the funding ANGUSalive committed to this project, we were also successful in our application to the Scottish Enterprise By Design Fund and received a grant of ÂŁ5,000.

Launched as part of the new website was the rollout of online booking of fitness classes for our sports members, improving the customer journey and meeting customer expectations. Also, the nomination process for our annual Sports Awards moved to online using the website content management system.

June 2019 was the start of the implementation of an online workforce management system using self-service tools and a mobile app to provide easy anytime access for all of our team. This has streamlined and automated time and attendance, scheduling, absence management and holiday approvals across our diverse workforce. It also provides consistent and accurate employee information across ANGUSalive.

For our 2019 Meffan Winter Show we used the OESS (Open Exhibition Submission & Selection) system, a popular online portal for all open exhibitions across the UK. We received pieces from new artists who had not entered before as well as our regular professional and amateur artists. The system was intuitive for artists to use to submit their work and simple to manage. This made it easy for our panel to select artworks for the exhibition, inform artists and collect entry fees. As a result, the process was much improved, more

efficient and cost effective.

We were able to extend our reach and received 59 more applications from artists across Scotland which resulted in the number of art works entered increasing by 74 compared to 2018.

In January 2020 a Board Intelligence platform was procured to enable our Board and senior leadership team to more effectively plan agendas, draft board papers, prepare board packs, access documents securely and meet with easy access to the information critical for the governance and decision-making arrangements.

Other projects included the rollout of Windows 10 which would also facilitate the move to Office 365.

Funds from our IT Renewal & Repair Fund were identified to support this project in relation to the purchase of replacement hardware and expansion of device rollout to our team.

13

ANGUSalive Sports Awards 2019 he annual ANGUSalive Sports Awards were held on Friday 13 March 2020, our last event before lockdown, at the Reid Hall, Forfar. The awards highlight and celebrate the achievements and success of athletes, coaches and volunteers across Angus. The nomination process attracted 68 individuals, teams, and clubs across the nine award categories. We celebrated the achievements and efforts of the winners and those who were highly commended at a spectacular event in front of an audience of 210 people and also live streamed the event so an extended audience could join us from home. The evening included a two-course dinner, entertainment and the awards ceremony. It is always a key highlight in the Angus sporting community diary.

T

“I’m very proud to be able to pick up this award. It’s been great to see all the inspirational people whether it’s coaches and volunteers or athletes - well done to everyone. I was at these awards a few years ago nominated as a junior and didn’t quite pick up the prize so it’s very nice to be here picking up the main prize tonight.”

Sandy Mitchell, Sports Personality of the Year

14

Arbroath Abbey Regality Register ngus Archives worked in partnership with Historic Environment Scotland, who have loaned the oldest of our three Arbroath Abbey Regality registers, dated 1288-c. 1500. As part of the collaborative effort, Historic Environment Scotland has undertaken much needed conservation work on the volume, taking it closer to its original binding.

The register will eventually go on display at the Arbroath Abbey Museum as part of the Arbroath 2020 celebrations.

A

The volume contains legal documents dating from the reign of King Robert I of Scotland until approximately 1500.

The Registers were given to John Smith of Bathary and James Smith, Writer to the Signet, his son, who was Clerk of the Royality, and in 1748 to John Maule, brother of the Earl of Panmure. In December 1822 the Honourable William Maule donated them to the Town of Arbroath.

The loan of Angus Archives’ oldest original Arbroath Abbey register will greatly enhance Historic Environment Scotland’s exhibition at Arbroath Abbey Museum, which will celebrate the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath.

The exhibition is both locally and nationally important and will attract visitors and tourists to the area.

Through this partnership with Historic Environment Scotland, it is also the first time that any of the Archive’s registers have gone on public display to such a wide audience.

This partnership working between ANGUSalive and Historic Environment Scotland will ensure the conserved registers can be enjoyed by visitors today and are looked after for future generations.

A venue for weddings NGUSalive was delighted to welcome the first ever couple to tie the knot in Montrose Library in December 2019. The ceremony took place in the Rose Room which offers plenty of space and privacy away from the main library, meaning the event was able to take place during regular opening hours.

The happy couple were then able to pose for photos on the staircase and outside the building. Around a year earlier in September 2018, we were delighted to reopen the newly refurbished library which pays homage to its heritage. It’s a gorgeous early-20th century building with a beautiful stained-glass window above the staircase, a burgh arms above the entrance bay, as well as the charming Rose Room.

A

This venue also presents an IT Suite and Interview Room making it the perfect venue for business too. We’ve been pleased to receive a number of further requests by other couples looking to marry within our beautiful listed building and Montrose Library, amongst our many other venues, offers a flexible space for hiring for all types of events and ceremonies.

15

Case Study Deliver best value and create investment opportunities

The arrival of Isla and Glen Libraries

“If the mobile library did not come to Birkhill I would have to travel to Forfar. I am disabled and there are many more elderly and disabled in this area so they also would not have access to books. Thank you,�

Mobile Library user

16

Did you know?

The libraries popular Dementia Memory Boxes were also a feature within the vans.

I

n June 2019, ANGUSalive launched two new mobile libraries named ‘Isla’ and ‘Glen’ following funding of £134,000 secured through the Angus LEADER European Rural Development Programme - grants are awarded to projects that will create more prosperous and resilient communities which are better places in which to live and work. This grant funding was matched by investment from Angus Council.

Lesley Matthews, Libraries Operations Lead, was buzzing with excitement at the vans’ long-awaited arrival.

“For many people our Mobile Library service is a lifeline, a vital part of the communities in which it serves. This investment will allow us to move forward with our commitment to deliver services to rural communities, many of whom have to cope with social isolation and service inequalities.”

Isla and Glen provide new purposebuilt, multi-functional facilities including IT equipment, offering greater access to library services such as book borrowing and research, as well as digital services and community-based health and wellbeing initiatives.

Dougie Pond, chair of Angus LEADER Local Action Group, added: “Connectivity is a key challenge for many rural communities in so many ways.

We see this new approach to library vans as a great chance to help address these issues locally.”

“I like the convenience of a library service in the village where I live, it means I don’t have to travel to Forfar 14 miles away. I really enjoy the friendly assistance of the librarians on the bus, they know the library users and their taste in reading matter,” Mobile Library user

The vans were unveiled at a special celebration at Peel Farm, Lintrathen.

Along with invited guests, customers had the opportunity to see firsthand these amazing multi-functional vehicles before they started their working life in Angus.

Did you know?

New equipment allows internet connectivity at the majority of scheduled stops, something that wasn’t available before.

“Well organised service.

Helpful staff and having the same person on the bus is good, as she knows what you like to read, makes suggestions etc,” Mobile Library user

17

Case Study Deliver best value and create investment opportunities

Reducing our carbon footprint A

NGUSalive received over £30,000 in Transport Scotland funding to support the charity in its ambitions to reduce its carbon footprint and make fuel and mileage cost savings.

The funding assisted the charity in leasing three new electric vehicles in February 2020 through

a national vehicle procurement framework.

The vehicles joined ANGUSalive’s existing electric vehicle fleet which includes two electric vans and a Nissan Leaf EV car. The new additions are small and compact BMW i3 vehicles which offer a distance range between charges of around 182 miles.

Did you know?

Our electric vehicles have helped save our charity over £15,000 in mileage claims

18

An EV fleet saves the charity considerable sums on employee mileage claims as well as reducing the need to use petrol and diesel fuel.

The funding will help ANGUSalive in its aim to reduce its carbon footprint as well as support the Scottish Government’s ambition to phase out the need for new diesel and petrol cars and vans by 2032.

“This activity supports our bold ambition to phase out the need for new petrol and diesel cars and vans across Scotland by 2032 and across our public sector fleet by 2030.”

Did you know?

Our EV vans support our Library Home Delivery Service. These vans help to reduce the footprint of Angus residents by delivering 816 books to them in 2019.

Michael Matheson, Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity

“I like the fact books are delivered weekly to my area. The availability of the ordering service. The helpful suggestions.”

Library Home Delivery Service user

19

Champion the positive benefits of our services We aim to promote the positive benefits of leisure, cultural and community services in terms of health and well-being, learning, community development and creativity.

Trip Advisor Customer Service Excellence Award n 2019 Arbroath’s Signal Tower Museum was entered into the Trip Advisor Hall of Fame for achieving the Trip Advisor Customer Service Excellence Award for five years in a row. The Certificate of Excellence honours hospitality businesses that deliver consistently great service across the world. This designation is presented to approximately 10% of total businesses on Trip Advisor that have consistently achieved great reviews over the previous year.

I

Fun in Athletics Festival and Giant Heptathlon n partnership with Dundee & Angus College, ANGUSalive delivers the Fun in Athletics programme to Primary 6 pupils and the Giant Heptathlon programme to S1 & S2 pupils across Angus. National Certificate students at Dundee & Angus College receive training from ANGUSalive every year to help deliver the programmes. A Fun in Athletics Festival runs in each town followed by an Angus grand final where 1st and 2nd place pupils progress to a regional competition providing individuals an opportunity to experience a competitive sporting environment. Two Giant Heptathlon Festivals are run across Angus for S1 & S2 Pupils which aim to introduce the participants to athletics and help create links to local clubs within Angus.

I

“Fantastic Forfar Fun in Athletics Event this morning. Great to see so many schools in attendance,” Twitter post

20

Go Swim o Swim is a free swimming programme delivered over two six week blocks. It attracts various levels of ability including level 1 – 4 Learn to Swim children and beginner to intermediate level adults. Sessions are structured in a way which develops the children and adults week-on-week to improve technique, fitness levels and general wellbeing. Go Swim is used as a building block for the participants to increase their physical activity levels, confidence and skills in order to continue swimming or undertake other sporting sessions on a regular basis. The programme is also a good opportunity for those in the community who are inactive to gently include regular physical activity within their lives. Across the four blocks which ran throughout 2019/2020, 119 participants have taken part in the programme.

G

Angus Glens Walking Festival 019 marked the 17th anniversary of our very popular Angus Glens Walking Festival which takes place over four days in May/June every year. It introduces hundreds of local people as well as visitors to the wildlife and scenic delights of the Angus Glens. The Walking Festival has been building on its strengths year-on-year to entice walkers of all abilities to partake and absorb the beautiful scenery of the county.

A total of 20 walks were on offer for a range of abilities to enjoy the great outdoors where people also took the opportunity to spot eagles, peregrine and red deer. Jock’s Road, the oldest right of way in Scotland which links Braemar with Glen Clova along a former Drovers’ route features each year and is always one of the most popular walks.

The event is well established and, consistent with previous years, attracted approximately 500 people which is around 94% capacity. Led by qualified mountain leaders, and assisted by our Countryside Rangers, it is one of ANGUSalive’s keynote events in the annual calendar. Fingers crossed for better weather next time!

2

Railways of Angus he railways have played an important part in shaping the County of Angus; feeding the local economy and connecting the towns and rural areas with the rest of the country. To highlight the important role of the railways, Angus Archives hosted a, ‘Railways of Angus’ display, to showcase archival collections documenting the history of existing and disused railways. On display were plans, documents, railway ephemera and a large selection of photographs from the archive’s unique and original collections.

T

“Fantastic exhibition and knowledge of staff. Would definitely recommend to others,” Comment card

Railways of Angus was the first display of its kind in the county to bring together the stories of the Angus railways. David Hamilton, author of ‘Caledonian railway locomotives: the formative years’, visited the event and kindly donated copies of his book. The event attracted over 60 visitors including families local historians, general interest groups, and railway enthusiasts.

Macmillan in the Libraries ur Macmillan in the Libraries project, which has been running since March 2017, provides supported access to information for people living with cancer, along with their carers. Libraries at Arbroath, Carnoustie, Kirriemuir and Monifieth feature Macmillan information points for cancer patients and their families. These offer high quality information and support in a relaxed, comfortable environment in the local community and are also supported by volunteers. A two-day induction training programme was provided in January 2020 for eight volunteers.

Sessions were established thereafter in Kirriemuir and Arbroath libraries to add to the existing Carnoustie session. Volunteers are now ready for sessions in Montrose and Brechin when the initiative launches in these libraries. The project has enabled the expansion of this much valued service and demonstrates the important role libraries play in supporting the health and wellbeing of members of the community. It has also enabled more volunteers to be trained in providing the service.

O

21

An annual spectacular NGUSalive’s Webster Memorial Theatre welcomed panto-lovers of all ages with its rendition of the classic Snow White in December 2019.

Nearly 6,500 people visited the show

A

over the three-week period including 1,669 young people from the county’s nursery, secondary and primary schools. Snow White featured a cast of five professional artistes, some from TV and film, as well as talented young people from Angus who had both dancing and acting parts in the

“While performing in the pantomime for 3 years it has meant the world to me and it’s like having a second family. I have met the most amazing and talented people that I will forever have a special bond with. Being part of the panto family has made me feel more confident and outgoing. There’s nothing better than being on stage and making people laugh and smile,” Aimee Milne

22

professional panto written and directed

by JJ Christine. A local dance school, Dancemania, participated in a number of the dance routines with the cast.

ANGUSalive’s annual panto enables many children to access the magic of theatre as well as encouraging young talent to gain experience in a professional theatre setting.

“I have really enjoyed being part of the panto family the last two years, working with professional actors and singers has given me valuable experience. Working with people I didn’t know beforehand have now become friends. I feel I have grown in confidence in all aspects. Can’t wait to be part of it all again,” Amy Duncan

Bookbug bag gifting ookbug, managed by the Scottish Book Trust, has been running in Scotland since 2010 and gives every child four free Bookbug Bags between birth and age five. Bookbug bags provide children with picture books and other fun items suited to the child’s age and for families to enjoy together and help children develop a love of stories, songs and rhymes.

B

During Book Week Scotland in November 2019, ANGUSalive worked in partnership with the Scottish Book Trust and Angus Council Learning and Teaching to deliver over 1,200 Bookbug Bags to Primary one and nursery children in local authority schools. As part of this, our Children & Families Libraries Lead and Creative Learning Advisor visited nine different schools and three nurseries gifting 427 Bookbug Bags to children. The project is always very popular and is enjoyed each year by teaching staff, parents and children.

Summer Reading Challenge - encouraging reading for all! uring the summer of 2019 we announced our first ever joint adult and children Summer Reading Challenge. We used our knowledge of previously running the Reading Agency SRC to introduce our own ‘six weeks, six books and great treats’ challenge. The challenge was open to all children and adults at all reading abilities and was campaigned around the theme Reading Rocks. Its aim is to encourage reading for pleasure and combat the reading dip some school children go through over the summer holidays.

D

Established children’s author Stuart Reid supported the campaign by participating in videos and attending the libraries to engage the children with the challenge. We promoted the campaign across several channels including social media and mobile libraries. The campaign attracted over 600 children and 129 adults.

Festive Fun Weekends he well-established Festive Fun Weekends which run throughout November and December every year takes place at Monikie Country Park. In 2019, a number of activities were on offer to get both the young and old in the festive spirt including Santa’s Grotto, Grinch’s Grotto, market stalls selling local crafts and goodies, Christmas decoration making workshops, reindeer-making workshops, family woodland trails, face painters and fairground rides.

It is estimated that approximately 5,000 visitors attended the event with nearly 1,100 people visiting Santa and The Grinch in their grottos.

No less than 135 people enjoyed the decoration making workshops and over 100 reindeers were created in the reindeer-making workshops and taken home for adults and the little ones to enjoy.

T

“Bookbug is making an important contribution to positive engagement with families who face barriers accessing services,” Bookbug Evaluation Centre for Research on Families and Relationships

23

Case Study Champion the positive benefits of our services

After the Apocalypse Museums, Galleries & Archives

“My favourite object is the shark tooth sword because it is an unusual design,�

Rory, school pupil age 14

24

“Taking part in this project has improved my listening skills,” Bethan, school pupil age 13

“My favourite part of the project was holding the weapons, how heavy it is, how smooth it is – it is fascinating to me,” Kyle, school pupil age 16

I

n February 2019, ANGUSalive’s Heritage Learning and Engagement Lead, Caroline Taylor, started a joint project with the Additional Support Needs class from Montrose Academy.

The team of 13 pupils aged between 12 and 17 years looked at what objects from Montrose Museum’s collection they would use following an apocalypse to help rebuild society.

They judged the merits of different objects and artworks including a shark tooth sword, wash board, totokia club and croquet mallet.

The project culminated in a threemonth exhibition, with labels researched and written by the pupils themselves and involved multiple visits to the museum. It allowed the pupils to see our collections in a different light and make personal connections with our objects.

Furthermore, the pupils learnt new skills in object handling, working as part of a team, communication, listening and research.

Most pupils involved said that it was their first ever visit to Montrose Museum with all providing positive feedback and saying they would return.

Caroline explains more about the idea for the exhibition. She said: “The idea for the project came from my interest in science fiction and zombie films and have often thought that museums would be ideal places to hide out during the apocalypse because of the selection of objects we have. The objects we have in our collection could also be used to rebuild society when we have to start from scratch again.”

The exhibition also enabled visitors to the museum to enjoy seeing a different type of exhibition on display. After the Apocalypse was also recognised externally with ‘Developing the Young Workforce Dundee and Angus’ filming one of the sessions as well as positive press coverage.

Did you know?

Visitors debated amongst themselves about which of the objects they would or wouldn’t have chosen.

What would you have chosen?

Did you know?

The pupils involved and their teachers visited Montrose Museum 24 times. Many said it was their first time ever in the museum.

25

Case Study Champion the positive benefits of our services

Helping Angus Move More Sport & Leisure

M

ove More ANGUSalive held its official launch in November 2019 at Brechin Community Campus.

Move More ANGUSalive is a partnership between Macmillan Cancer Support and ANGUSalive.

The programme aims to ensure that people living with cancer are supported to become physically active, before, during and after treatment.

Macmillan Cancer Support has provided £120,000 of funding over a period of three years to

support ANGUSalive in developing a sustainable pathway to help people living with and beyond cancer to be physically active.

Speakers at the launch of this important initiative included Professor Anna Campbell, who is an expert in the field of exercise and cancer, along with two participants from Move More ANGUSalive, who spoke powerfully about their personal experiences. The audience also enthusiastically joined in a taster session of Gentle Movement.

Head of Macmillan in Scotland, Janice Preston, said:

“Traditionally people have been told that rest was best and while it is right to rest at certain times, it is also really beneficial to get moving too. Research shows that being active during and after treatment can not only help with the side effects but also reduce the loneliness and isolation many people feel.

“We realise people may feel nervous about building up their activity levels, particularly if it’s for the first time after treatment or if they haven’t been very active for a while, which is why Macmillan is working with ANGUSalive to provide this programme specifically for those affected by cancer.”

Did you know?

Move More activities on offer across Angus include gentle movement classes, circuit classes, and Macmillan friendly walking groups.

26

Did you know?

76% of referrals have chosen to progress into some form of physical activity.

During 2019/20 ANGUSalive received 67 referrals for people living with cancer. Our insight shows that we are reaching people with a range of cancer diagnoses, and people are engaging at different points in their cancer journey.

“It’s a time of day just to focus on oneself and I get just as much out of the class as those attending it,” Move More volunteer

Volunteers are crucial in the delivery of Move More ANGUSalive, and we are fortunate to have recruited and trained 12 Gentle Movement volunteers. Volunteer walk leaders from existing Paths for All programmes have also enthusiastically supported Move More, with nine walk leaders completing Macmillan Core training.

Training has been provided to four ANGUSalive specialist exercise instructors so that people living with cancer can be professionally supported to participate in suitable physical activity.

“Gentle Movement is a lovely oasis of calm in the week,” Move More participant

27

Encourage participation for all ANGUSalive aims to promote participation in activities at all levels and for all sections of the community to enable residents to fulfil their potential in their chosen area of activity.

Summer Athletics (Run, Jump, Throw) Programme n the summer of 2019, ANGUSalive delivered a five-week summer holiday athletics programme aimed at 5 to 12 year-olds. The Run, Jump, Throw programme runs yearly during the summer holidays across ANGUSalive’s Sport & Leisure

I

facilities. It is an introductory athletics programme for children to gain an opportunity to participate in athletics and was delivered in Brechin, Montrose, Forfar, Carnoustie and Arbroath. The aim of the programme was to engage children in the sport of athletics and promote

pathways into junior coaching programmes with ANGUSalive or local athletics clubs. The programme is the first stepping stone for children to participate in athletics and highlights the various athletics clubs across Angus. In the 2019 summer programme there were 111 participants across the five centres, an increase on the previous year.

The programme provides ANGUSalive with an opportunity to provide sport specific coaching through our professional workforce. Children are provided an opportunity to develop new skills and gain a positive experience of a sport, which may be new to many.

28

Para Sport Festival he Para Sport Festival, held in Webster’s, Brechin and Carnoustie High Schools, provides a range of opportunities for young people with a physical, visual, hearing or learning disability to try new and exciting sports as well as learn more about the pathways that are available in the Angus area. Furthermore, the event highlights the opportunities for young people with disabilities to achieve at the highest level and hopefully inspire them to become our stars of the future.

T

The event is designed to allow young people to experience a wide range of para sports delivered by our Disabilities & Inclusion Lead, local school sports leaders, and coaches from clubs within Angus. The activities selected are where we have strong club links so that children can continue to enjoy and develop within the sports for many years to come.

The Sports Leaders from the Angus Secondary Schools are given Disability Inclusion Training prior to the event which includes a mix of theory and practical delivery to allow them to positively include the children with a disability in the festival.

The para sport festivals have been running in Webster’s and Carnoustie for three years and this year saw the addition of the Brechin High School Cluster area. 96 children attended in total over the three para sport festival days.

Kirriemuir’s Ghost Walk upils at Webster’s High School in Kirriemuir researched and played ghoulish characters from the past in two guided walks which took place in October 2019. The Dark Side of the Wee Red Toon walks were enjoyed by over 50 visitors who were immersed in the atmospheric dark walk with costumed characters during Halloween week. The pupils participated in Friday afternoon workshops for six weeks prior to the performances, researching their historical characters and creating props and costumes.

P

The ghostly guided walks have proved successful with new pupils returning each year to volunteer and visitors booking the performances. This year was the fourth year of the project and it attracted a new group of enthusiastic pupils who had an interest in drama and history, were keen to be involved in a project which connected them to the heritage of the places around them and volunteer for an Angus charity.

The walks were fully booked, and attendees gave positive feedback saying they had learnt something new about the rich history of the town through an enjoyable format.

Each pupil volunteered for around 12 hours over the duration of the project (totalling 88 hours of volunteering).

Attendance of the two performances included 47 adults and four children.

29

Outline of our temporary displays:

Temporary Exhibitions Programme rom April 2019 to March 2020, 15 temporary heritage displays took place in our museums and archives, representing a major strand of the work of the museum exhibition team. The work widened the reach of ANGUSalive, increasing access to the collections previously not on display and offering the opportunity for visitors to connect with many personal stories from the rich history of Angus.

F

Dementia Memory Box ur Archives & Local History Lead worked with our Adult and Community Libraries Lead, to supply copies of Angus Archives’ photograph collections to help create new Dementia Memory Boxes.

O

The Dementia Memory Boxes are filled with a range of objects and photographs, designed to prompt recollections of childhood, holidays, home life, days at work, and a range of other experiences.

These recollections will help aid conversation between the person with dementia, their loved ones and carers, and help combat social isolation.

These new Dementia Memory Boxes, kindly funded by a donation from East Practice, Springfield Medical Centre, Arbroath, will be a welcome addition to our resources and feature the themes of Old Arbroath and Sea Fishing, amongst others.

The boxes can be reserved online through the library catalogue, or via the team on our mobile libraries and at our libraries across Angus. The new images complement the existing Dementia Memory Boxes that are available through the library service.

30

The displays encompassed a wide range of themes from the fashion of the 1980s, the changing face of our High Streets, mountaineers, Victorian archaeologists, to the life of a rural postman. Designing small pop up displays such as ‘150 years of lighting up Scurdie Ness’ offers the opportunity for the exhibitions team to be reactive to local notable anniversaries in each local museum community. Despite the disruption to the temporary museum exhibition programme in March 2020 the team looks forward to designing and installing rescheduled displays in 2021 which commemorate the delayed historical anniversaries – 800th anniversary of Brechin Cathedral and the 700th anniversary of the signing of the declaration of Arbroath.

• When We Were Young Meffan Museum Jan - Apr 2019 • Up the High Street Meffan Museum Mar - Jun 2019 • Commemorating Sir Hugh Munro Gateway To The Glens Museum Apr - Jun 2019 • Highway to Kirriemuir Gateway to the Glens Museum Apr - May 2019 • Down by the Loch Shore Meffan Museum May - Jun 2019 • Discovering Ancient Egypt Meffan Museum Jun - Sep 2019 • Heading to the Wedding Gateway to the Glens Museum Jun - Sep 2019 • Leather Lace and Legging Meffan Museum Jun - Aug 2019 • Dancehall Days Brechin Townhouse Museum July - Aug 2019 • Marking the 80th Anniversary of the outbreak of WWII Gateway to the Glens Museum Aug - Sep 2019 • David Waterson Brechin Townhouse Museum Oct 19 - Mar 2020 • It’s Behind You Gateway to the Glens Museum Oct - Dec 2019 • After the Apocalypse Meffan Museum Dec 19 - Mar 20 • The Post Office Makes its Stamp Gateway to the Glens Museum Jan - Mar 20 • 150 years of lighting up Scurdie Ness Montrose Museum Feb - Oct 2019

Partnership with Southesk Primary n October 2019, ANGUSalive began working in partnership with Southesk Primary in Montrose to have every pupil join the library, visit, borrow a book and undertake further engagement with our libraries. Even when the Coronavirus hit in March 2020 and we had to close our venues, lockdown didn’t stop their enthusiasm and engagement with us as the headteacher pressed on encouraging online memberships to access our digital offer to support literacy. We are continuing our links with the schools and will build further on this new formed partnership.

I

Erasmus scheme NGUSalive has been taking part in the Erasmus scheme for the past five years. The scheme is designed to provide overseas students the opportunity to undertake work experience abroad. In 2019/20 two French students from Henri-Queuille School spent three weeks learning about conservation work. Although mainly based at Monikie Country Park, the students spent time across all our country parks to learn and get

A

hands-on experience. They undertook a variety of tasks, including fencing, tree planting, creating bat boxes, maintenance of footpaths and orchards as well as how to correctly display public information. Our team at ANGUSalive ensure the programme of activities that are undertaken by the students are closely matched to their individual strengths, abilities and language skills. The scheme improves both their vocational and English language skills.

BBC Virtual Reality taster sessions n May 2019 our libraries participated in a BBC Virtual Reality project with taster sessions in Arbroath, Carnoustie, Montrose and Forfar Libraries. ANGUSalive successfully bid to BBC to borrow two Virtual Reality headsets preloaded with BBC content and we were able to set up sessions for the public to attend and try out the headsets for themselves.

We were able to attract a different audience to this project particularly those interested in new technology and we demonstrated we were keeping up with new developments in IT. The project led ANGUSalive to seek funding opportunities to purchase its own equipment now that we have identified interest in this new technology

I

31

Offering something for everyone at our Theatres and Venues NGUSalive’s Theatres and Venues once again demonstrated throughout 2019/20 the diverse range of shows programmed offer something for everyone.

A

The immensely popular Red Hot Chilli Pipers were back at the theatre in September 2019 as part of their ‘Fresh Air’ album tour performing two shows. Both performances sold out very quickly and the ‘bagpipes with attitude’ went down a storm with the packed audience.

For families, Milkshake Monkey and his favourite Milkshake friends came to the theatre in August 2019. Our family audience learned the amazing songs and

32

dances of their Milkshake friends including Fireman Sam, Noddy, Shimmer & Shine, Digby, Wissper, Nella the Princess Knight and the Floogals.

“Fabulous Show, a great night out, love it.”

Social media post on Vampires Rock

The Angus Minstrels have been entertaining audiences for almost 60 years and have raised £600,000 for more than 100 deserving causes. In 2019, they staged their finale variety concert to large audiences over six performances.

Cream is one of the world’s most iconic dance brands and Seb Fontaine is one of the most recognised DJs on the international club scene. Montrose Town Hall was delighted to welcome Seb Fontaine on Saturday 7 March 2020 where he showcased his electronic house grooves to an energetic dance audience.

Tayside Symphony Orchestra was formed in 1992 by the late Ron Walker to raise money for the Chest, Heart and Stroke Foundation in honour of his late father. Ron developed the orchestra over 20 years and conducted up until his own ill health forced him to take a step back. The orchestra has raised thousands of pounds for charity over the years due to the hard work of its committee and members. We

“Was at this last night, incredible!”

Social media post on Rocket Man

were delighted we had the Tayside Symphony Orchestra return to the Reid Hall in February 2020 for two special sell-out performances.

Other popular shows that were performed throughout 2019-20 included Steve Steinman’s Vampires Rock; One Night of Queen; comedians Craig Hill and Reginald D. Hunter; Rocket Man – a Tribute to Elton John; Strictly Come Dancing favourite Giovanni Pernice and A Country Night in Nashville amongst others.

“The Arbroath audience is the most raucous and game audience encountered so far,” Comedian Reginald D Hunter via Twitter

33

Case Study Encourage participation for all

The perfect place to volunteer Countryside Adventure

A

ll five of our countryside sites offer extensive opportunities for all types of individuals, community groups, schools and organisations to volunteer. The opportunities are varied and conservation based. Some of the groups who take advantage of the volunteering opportunities include: Angus Works, Angus Carers Centre, Welfare to Work Skills Development Scotland, Dundee and Angus College, Craigmill Skill Centre and Duke of Edinburgh.

Volunteering continues to make a positive impact.

Tuesday Club Weekly supervised volunteer sessions took place at Crombie Country Park and then latterly from Monikie Country Park. During 2019/2020 the Tuesday Club helped with general estate management, amenity management, conservation management of the park and helped greatly with preparation for our Christmas events. Volunteers contributed numerous hours of work in return for friendship, fun and of course some tea and biscuits.

There is great comradery and skill sharing within the group which helps volunteers maintain a healthy, active and social life; some volunteers have long term health conditions, and this is the only social activity they take part in. Several say it has been life changing and helpful to know they are making a positive impact on their local community.

Wildlife Survey Volunteers A regular volunteer at Crombie Country Park, Margaret, carried out our Butterfly Transect Survey for 2019/20 and submitted the results to Butterfly Conservation. This research is essential to understand and plan for species habitat management. The Butterfly Survey took place during a 26 week period during April to October 2019. Margaret also carried out the park’s Wildflower Walk Survey. Surveys can only be carried out in good weather so it ensures a nice day out but it is also Margaret’s way of putting even more back into the park in return for the amount of enjoyment she gets from working with the Tuesday Group. Margaret’s flora data is added to a national database.

34

“No-one can put a price on the feeling after a good clean up. I am so proud of how all the volunteers keep our lovely Forfar Loch Park tidy against all odds,” Midge Allan

Craigmill Skill Centre Volunteers Adults from the Craigmill Skill Centre volunteered at Crombie and Monikie Country Park assisting the Countryside Rangers with general park maintenance. The volunteers thoroughly enjoyed their connection with the park and seeing the fruits of their labour. They also had the opportunity to learn a little more about the natural environment.

Forfar Loch volunteering A team of adult volunteers, junior rangers and participants from Angus Works, Forfar Academy, Greenbuds, Enable and Dundee & Angus College amongst others assisted with the management of Forfar Loch Country Park during 2019/20.

The junior rangers assisted the countryside rangers with park maintenance, anti-dog fouling campaigns and habitat enhancement as well as carrying out community litter picks twice a year. All of our volunteers have been an asset during periods of high levels of vandalism which have required major clean ups. Our park has benefited greatly due to the assistance of such a devoted group of volunteers.

Did you know?

We have volunteers from age 5 to 75 years. You are never too old to try your hand at something new. Contact our Countryside Adventure team direct to enquire.

Did you know?

There are 12 or more

Our fantastic volunteers support species of butterfly at the Countryside Rangers with the Forfar and Crombie day-to-day running of the park such Country Parks waiting as undertaking litter picking, general to be discovered. There maintenance, managing path edges, woodland management, laying bark is so much to see whilst on woodland trails, controlling the volunteering! spread of invasive species, assisting with the management and enhancement of our wildlife Did you know? garden, beds and Species that can be seen borders. in and around Monikie,

Crombie and Forfar Loch Country Parks include otter, beaver, red squirrel, badger and roe deer.

“I have enjoyed volunteering with ANGUSalive as it has built up my confidence and that has reflected in other aspects of my life,” Colin McMillan, Countryside Adventure Volunteer

35

Case Study Encourage participation for all

Active Girls Day Sport & Leisure

“We hope this opportunity will inspire the girls to be healthy, active and creative throughout their lives by continuing to participate in sport and physical activity regularly,” ANGUSalive Chief Executive Kirsty Hunter

I

n October 2019 ANGUSalive, Forfar Community Sport Hubs and Angus Active Schools worked in partnership to celebrate Active Girls Day at Forfar Community Campus. Clubs from Forfar Community Sport Hub included Strathmore Rugby Football Club and Forfar Golf Club who helped deliver a range of activities throughout the day.

Active Girls day is a national initiative to celebrate the amazing work that goes into girls’ sport, the progress around girls’ participation, and the incredible role models making it happen. The event provides pathways for the girls to attend club sessions along with creating and enhancing school/club links through the Active Schools team. We had over 50 girls attend from all over Angus and involved Forfar Badminton Club, Forfar Golf Club, Netball, Tayside Musketeers, Forfar Farmington Football Club, Strathmore Cricket Club and Strathmore Rugby Club.

36 36

“Cricket was really good.

It was the first time I’d played it,” Active Girls Day participant

“I had a brilliant day.

I got to try out lots of different sports,”

This event provided an opportunity for partners to work specifically with girls and young women, a group where levels of sporting activity is low. Through this event the pupils were able to gain more confidence in specific sports and pathways to continue participation in the sports which were showcased.

Scott Nicoll, Community Sports Hub Coordinator, said, “The Active Girls day is a national initiative and it was really positive to see that we had reached out to 54 girls throughout Angus to take part in the activities we had on offer. The girls had the opportunity to take part in all of the sports and hopefully follow up by

returning to a club session. It was such a fantastic day for all partners to be involved in and put on a great event for all the keen active girls.”

Active Girls Day participant

Cllr Derek Wann said: “This is a really important initiative to support the promotion of female participation in sport and to address inequalities in participation opportunities for girls and young women.”

Did you know?

95% of the coaches involved in Active Girls Day were female.

37

Promote a culture of diversity and equality Ensure that services meet or exceed the Trust’s obligations under the Equalities Act 2010.

Expanding our fleet for inclusive cycling NGUSalive was delighted to expand its adaptive bikes fleet in July 2019 with the addition of the Van Raam Fun2Go double rider cycle.

The brand-new bike was another step forward in the leisure offering to people with disability across Angus.

The ANGUSalive Adaptive Cycling Hub at West Links, Arbroath is an inclusive area for cycling for anyone who needs that little bit of extra support.

A

Our current participants include people with physical and learning disabilities and visual impairments. Major benefits of outdoor physical activities are increased confidence, better health and improved social skills. The sessions, which run twice weekly from March to October are social and fun, with plenty of energy, enthusiasm and laughter. The Fun2Go bike was purchased through partnership funding from Angus Disability Sport, Angus Society for the Blind, Special Olympics Tayside and ANGUSalive.

“Exercise and outdoor activity are so much more difficult if you have a disability. It was great to see some of the participants enjoying the ride along West Links, and also being a part of the busy activity around the seafront, in the warm sunshine.

ANGUSalive are doing a great job of delivering this service for the residents of Angus,” Jean Stevenson, representing Angus Society for the Blind

38

Books with a Voice n October 2019 we invested in a number of Vox Books at Forfar Library - print book meets audio book. Vox Books are the world’s first audio book that is fully integrated into a print book. The permanently attached Vox Reader transforms an ordinary print book into an all-in-one read-along. We have a large range of both picture and non-fiction titles with audio recordings to encourage children to read-along and make learning fun.

I

This was a major accomplishment for ANGUSalive as we were the first library in Scotland to introduce the Vox Books providing an excellent service development for our customers.

Although the collection is based at Forfar Library, customers at other locations can request these. There are plans to move the collection around the service points in rotation ensuring even more people can access the technology-enhanced books.

Disability Inclusion and Autism Awareness Training n partnership with Scottish Disability Sport, ANGUSalive not only offered our annual disability inclusion training for some of its frontline employees and community coaches but we also introduced Autism Awareness Training. The workshops held in November 2019 and February 2020 were both fully subscribed. The Disability Inclusion Training focused on ability rather than disability, delivering good practice, effective communications and signposted sources of further information. The focus of the Autism Workshop was on being able to identify and then introduce good practice for participants on the autism spectrum, be more confident about including participants on the autism spectrum and more knowledgeable regarding how impairment impacts on the ability of the individual to master specific skills. 36 ANGUSalive employees now have an improved understanding about how to support the inclusion of disabled people in the delivery of our services.

I

Adult Reader Development Strategy Group NGUSalive’s Adult & Communities Libraries Lead is part of a team of 12 librarians, representing all 32 library authorities, working to promote reader development ideas and skills. They are also applying for funding on behalf of all authorities across Scotland to help widen reading choices and opportunities for all readers.

A

This longstanding group meets quarterly in venues across Scotland to work with authorities, the Scottish Library & Information Council and Scottish Book Trust. Working together they promote the importance of reading and provide the best national resources for libraries to provide a good reading experience for customers regardless of their authority‘s size and book budget. ANGUSalive’s involvement in this group enhances the Adult & Communities Libraries Lead’s professional development as well as having involvement and exposure with a professional body.

39

Case Study Promote a culture of diversity and equality

Autism Friendly Activity Hour Museums, Galleries & Archives

A

utism Friendly Activity Hour was an event run at Montrose Museum and supported by National Museums Scotland on 1 February 2020. It was aimed at children with autism to encourage them and their families to engage with our ancient Egyptian collection.

40

We offered a variety of different activities including storytelling, making an Egyptian headband, object handling, a sensory tent, a picture trail and a hieroglyph hunt.

There were also sensory backpacks available containing items intended to make the museum visit accessible for the children.

It was a relaxed format where the children could take part in whichever activities they chose for as long as they wanted.

The event was attended by 11 people, six of whom were children with autism. This event opened up our museum to a different audience – many of the parents had been hesitant to visit our museum and others in the past. Our feedback highlighted however that many said they would come back to the museum again. Many also commented positively on the relaxed nature of the event, showing how important it is to create that environment in the museum, particularly for this audience.

Did you know?

All of the families said that the event was fun or that it helped them to spend quality time together

Caroline Taylor, Heritage Learning & Engagement Lead said: “It’s important to make sure that our museums are accessible for everyone so that all families can learn and have fun together in a relaxed and friendly environment.”

Caroline and the ANGUSalive team further and to see the creative and innovative programming that was produced.

“Through evaluation gained from the Social Impact Toolkit (provided as part of the partnership), ANGUSalive was able to demonstrate the incredibly positive outcomes this programming achieved for the audience, something which was wonderful to see, a joy to report on and which I am sure will be carried on into the future.”

Rachel Drury, NMS Learning and Engagement Officer for the Revealing Stories national programme added: “One of the aims of the Revealing Stories national programme was to support local museums across Scotland in developing tailored resources and programmes for audiences with autism, widening access to collections and sharing knowledge and best practice throughout the sector.

Having already developed a strong relationship with ANGUSalive through the NLHF funded Ancient Egypt and East “The session had a Asia national really relaxed and comfy programme, it atmosphere,” was fantastic to Evaluation form feedback be able to support

“My son loved the experience,” Parent of participant

“The whole session was really worth attending,” Evaluation form feedback

41

Our year at a glance Delivered a five-week summer holiday athletics programme aimed at 5 to 12 year-olds. The Run, Jump, Throw programme runs yearly during the summer holidays across our Sport & Leisure facilities.

BBC Virtual Reality project taster sessions begin in Arbroath, Carnoustie, Montrose and Forfar Libraries Launch of new ANGUSalive website enabling users to have a more engaging and informative experience ‘Get it Loud in Libraries’ event takes place at Carnoustie Library designed to give people who love music the chance to see top artists in their local library

APR

MAY

Our first ever joint adult and children Summer Reading Challenge was launched

Revised arrangements were put in place to capture and record customer compliments and comments

Expanded our adaptive bikes fleet with the addition of the Van Raam Fun2Go double rider cycle

The immensely popular Red Hot Chilli Pipers were back at Webster Memorial Theatre performing two shows

JUN

JUL

AUG J.M.W. (William) Turner’s famous watercolour painting of the Bell Rock Lighthouse left its home at Edinburgh’s National Galleries for a oneday pop-up exhibition event at Arbroath’s Signal Tower Museum

‘When We Were Young’ exhibition launched at the Meffan Museum and Art Gallery

Celebrated Volunteers’ Week in style with a volunteers’ barbecue and pond dipping at Crombie Country Park

Commemorating Sir Hugh Munro exhibition launched at Gateway to the Glens Museum

Launch of two new mobile libraries ‘Isla’ and ‘Glen’ following funding from Angus LEADER European Rural Development Programme.

The grant was matched by investment from Angus Council

Milkshake Monkey pays us a visit to entertain little and big kids at Webster Memorial Theatre

Held the 17th anniversary of the popular Angus Glens Walking Festival which attracts walkers to Angus

Our libraries Dementia Memory Boxes begin to feature pictures from our Angus Archives

Discovering Ancient Egypt, the touring exhibition from National Museums Scotland, launched at Montrose Museum for three months

42

SEP

Over 1,200 Bookbug bags distributed to nursery and primary schools as part of Book Week Scotland Festive Fun Weekends at Monikie Country Park help add some sparkle to Christmas Volunteers given a two-day induction training programme to help provide Macmillan support in our libraries

A new partnership formed between NHS Tayside Physiotherapists and ANGUSalive’s Long Term Conditions Instructors to support people living with Parkinson’s Disease

Two Giant Heptathlon Festivals take place across Angus for S1 & S2 pupils

Forfar Library transformed into a Chatty Café with author Jenny Colgan to celebrate Book Week Scotland

NOV

DEC

JAN

Pupils at Webster’s High School in Kirriemuir played ghoulish characters from the past in our two guided ‘Dark Side of the Wee Red Toon’ ghost walks

Angus Archives hosted a week-long ‘Railways of Angus’ display to showcase archival collections documenting the history of existing and disused railways

ANGUSalive, Forfar Community Sport Hub and Angus Active Schools worked in partnership to celebrate Active Girls Day at Forfar Community Campus

Welcomed the first ever couple to tie the knot in Montrose Library

An investment was made in Vox Books - the world’s first audio book that is fully integrated into a print book A new partnership between NHS Mental Health Team and ANGUSalive’s Long Term Conditions Instructors was established with the aim of introducing mindfulness and relaxation sessions to develop our existing BE ACTIVE…live well programme

The annual ANGUSalive Sports Awards takes place showcasing local sporting talent and volunteers

Our Adult Library & Communities Lead invited by the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) to be part of a peer assessor team for its ‘How Good Is Our Public Library Service’ Quality Indicator 2 submission

The launch of Move More ANGUSalive at Brechin Community Campus

OCT

The Deaf and British Sign Language course is delivered to employees by our partners in Angus Council

Webster Memorial Theatre welcomed panto-lovers of all ages with the classic Snow White After the Apocalypse exhibition, a project with Montrose Academy, launched at Montrose Musesum The second part of the Parasport Festival takes place

ANGUSalive has to close its venues from Thu 18 March due to the coronavirus pandemic

FEB

MAR

Tayside Symphony Orchestra return to the Reid Hall for two special sell-out performances The last in a series of training sessions provided by Alliance Leisure to help our colleagues improve customer service Three new electric vehicles introduced to our EV fleet to help reduce our carbon footprint Walking Sports launched

by Forfar Community Sport Hub in partnership with ANGUSalive Autism Friendly Activity Hour, supported by National Museums Scotland, launched at Montrose Museum A second workshop delivered for Disability Inclusion and Autism Awareness Training

43

Improve outcomes through effective partnerships at local, regional and national levels Develop and nurture robust and productive partnerships with local clubs, community groups, voluntary organisations, the National Health Service, national bodies and customer groups.

Introducing mindfulness sessions new partnership between the NHS Mental Health Team and ANGUSalive’s Long Term Conditions Instructors was established in October 2019 with the aim of introducing mindfulness and relaxation sessions to develop our existing BE ACTIVE…live well programme.

A

ANGUSalive’s Health & Wellbeing Lead worked closely with NHS Scotland’s Community Mental Health & Wellbeing Practice Development Nurse to

44

plan the best approach to offer this additional service. This partnership will build on existing links with NHS Tayside with future plans to include introducing mindfulness and relaxation sessions into our sports facilities.

Supporting people with Parkinson’s Disease o support people living with Parkinson’s Disease in Angus and to develop our existing BE ACTIVE…

T

live well programme, a partnership was formed between NHS Tayside Physiotherapists and ANGUSalive’s Long Term Conditions Instructors in November 2019.

Physiotherapists who had completed PD Warrior Training, delivered an informative presentation to ANGUSalive’s Long Term Conditions Instructors in January 2020 outlining the benefits that physical activity has on people who are in the early stages of Parkinson’s Disease.

This was followed by an excellent demonstration of the exercises and principles which have been developed and tailored for Parkinson’s Disease.

We are looking forward to following up this project with further training sessions to ensure we can continue providing support to people living with Parkinson’s.

Swimming Development Group NGUSalive supports and facilitates a swimming development group, which is a collaboration of all Angus Swimming Clubs who come together to share good practice and provide squads for athletes showing potential.

The Development and Area Squad organised by the Development Group runs from October to June each year and 2019 saw the squads redeveloped into a new structured format which included development days, parents’ meetings and friendly competitions.

A

The Swimming Development Group has received positive feedback from those involved, indicating how much the group is valued. There are currently seven clubs involved: St Thomas ASC, Brechin Beavers, Carnoustie Claymores, Monifieth ASC, Montrose Seals, Forfar Falcons and Kirriemuir and District ASC. In 2019 66 swimmers took part across the Development and Area Squad.

“Since the restart of the group last year, it has allowed the emerging swimming talent to train together encouraging good practise and improving competitive standards. Whilst doing this, through coach collaboration, we have also improved training and education back in the home clubs,” Lorna Whike: Arbroath St Thomas Swimming Club

45

Activities from Montrose Basin he Montrose Basin is the estuary of the South Esk and covers 750 hectares and a site of international importance for visiting and resident birds. As well as being a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), the reserve is a designated Local Nature Reserve (LNR) giving greater recognition and protection to its wildlife. ANGUSalive in partnership with Scottish Wildlife Trust offer various events throughout the year for keen bird lovers or those just looking for a bit of outdoor adventure.

T

46

These include Pink Sunset, an event enabling participants to enjoy the Autumn spectacle of tens of thousands of Pink Footed Geese; Journey to the End of the Mud which provides intrepid walkers a very different perspective of the town of Montrose as they cross the oozing mudflats to the centre of the Basin and Goose Breakfast, which has become a must for some people over the years.

It’s an early start for participants who catch the sight of thousands of geese leaving the safety of the water to feed in fields around Angus. All the events are well attended with over 100 coming along to those held during 2019/20.

Discovering Ancient Egypt exhibition iscovering Ancient Egypt was a touring exhibition from National Museums Scotland that was on display at Montrose Museum from 8 June – 7 September 2019. The exhibition brought together fascinating objects and hidden stories from the collections of National Museums Scotland and Montrose Museum to reveal how ancient Egypt has captivated Scotland over the past 200 years, as it still does today. The ancient Egyptian statue of a female temple musician called Meramuniotes from Montrose Museum’s collection (conserved as part of this project) was also on display.

D

This project demonstrates ANGUSalive’s ability to attract a touring exhibition from a high-profile institution such as National Museums Scotland. The exhibition held at Montrose was also the furthest north that the exhibition toured in Scotland – enabling the people of Angus as well as those in the surrounding areas to access and visit the exhibition.

As well as attracting 3,637 visitors, 785 of those made the trip specifically to see the Discovering Ancient Egypt Exhibition. Positive press coverage was also achieved including articles in the Herald, Metro, The Courier, Scotsman, The National and the Press and Journal, particularly focusing on the statue of Meramuniotes.

The project provided ANGUSalive the opportunity to showcase ancient Egyptian treasures to local people from national collections as well as the many Egyptian treasures we have in our own collection.

Pop-upExhibition J.M.W. Turner Watercolour J.M.W. (William) Turner’s famous watercolour painting of the Bell Rock Lighthouse left its regular home of Edinburgh’s National Galleries for a unique one-day pop-up exhibition event at Arbroath’s Signal Tower museum in August, 2019.

As well as being able to appreciate the 200-year-old painting at close quarters, museum visitors were also given the opportunity to learn about the artist in the setting of the shore station for Robert Stevenson’s 115foot structure.

167 people (twice our museum’s normal daily visitor numbers) visited specifically to see the painting, and

“It is an excellent exhibition – really appreciate having it here,” Customer feedback form

72 were further involved in three talks provided by National Galleries expert Charlotte Topsfield who gave an insight into Turner’s life and work.

Working in partnership with the National Galleries of Scotland, the event gave an unprecedented opportunity for the community of Arbroath, art lovers, and lighthouse enthusiasts to see this painting upclose in the setting which inspired it.

The event was oversubscribed on the day, and many of those who attended were first-time visitors to the museum.

“I learnt that Montrose has some important Egyptian artefacts,” Customer feedback form

“Lovely to see Meramuniotes on display and learn about her place in Theban history,” Customer feedback form

47

Case Study Improve outcomes through effective partnerships at local, regional and national level

Chatty Café at Forfar Library Libraries

“What a night!”

Polly, Twitter user

Did you know?

Jenny Colgan is the author of numerous bestselling novels for adults, including ‘Meet Me at the Cupcake Café’ and ‘Little Beach Street Bakery.’

48

E

very year in November, ANGUSalive participates in the annual Book Week Scotland event, providing the public with the chance to visit and hear popular authors speaking about their books and writing.

In 2019, the Scottish Book Trust offered all Scottish Library Authorities the chance to pitch innovative ideas to gain the chance of a fully funded visit from a high-profile author.

ANGUSalive employees pitched for author, Jenny Colgan, to pay us a visit alongside the idea of transforming Forfar Library into a ‘Chatty Café’ for an evening, complete with small tables decorated with flowers and fine china with a specially created ‘Chatty Café’ backdrop.

Staff from Scottish Book Trust and Jenny Colgan herself chose ANGUSalive as the winning proposal, with the highly successful event taking place on 21 November 2019. Jenny Colgan was delighted to play the role of the ‘café owner,’ welcoming ‘café customers’ and circulating tables chatting with attendees, whilst our team were ‘bakers’ and ‘waitresses’ serving coffee, cupcakes and treats from recipes featured in Jenny’s ‘Café’ books.

Christine Sharp, Adult & Community Libraries Lead said: “When we heard we were successful in winning the bid to host author Jenny Colgan, colleagues were absolutely delighted.

We loved the transformation of Forfar Library into a café for the evening, serving cakes and treats that featured in Jenny’s books.

“It was clear to see from faces on the night and feedback from customers that everyone enjoyed the event.

Each table of four were able to have a conversation with Jenny in turn, making the event more personal and memorable.”

STV attended and filmed the evening, with a clip featuring on STV news.

Although we take part in this national reading promotion annually, it was a new way of holding the event which not only attracted new audiences but also national media interest.

“The good china was brought out last night for Chatty Cafe! A massive thanks to Forfar Library for the beautiful spread. Cake and books are always a winning combo!”

Jenny Colgan, Author

Did you know?

Attendees completed a survey which showed most hadn’t attended a library event previously but were attracted by a high-profile author and the Chatty Café format in Forfar Library.

49

Case Study Improve outcomes through effective partnerships at local, regional and national level

Spotlight on Arbroath Fishing Heritage Museums, Galleries & Archives

I

n September 2019 ANGUSalive was delighted to open a permanent fishing and maritime heritage exhibition at the Signal Tower Museum.

The gatehouses, which form part of the Category A listed building, were internally remodelled to create new exhibition space, with displays and interpretation installed to tell the story of Arbroath’s connection with fishing and the sea. One refurbished cottage now has a gallery with a reconstructed interior of a fishing boat, a gallery housing a fleet of ship models, and on the first floor a temporary exhibition gallery. In the other cottage a fishing and maritime industry gallery as well as an activity space has been created.

The project was the first phase of ANGUSalive’s plans to further develop Arbroath’s Signal Tower Museum into a flagship visitor destination and future proposed phases include capital works to allow regular opening of the tower for booked tours, and redevelopment of the courtyard and front garden to create multipurpose community use outdoor spaces with areas for retail and café space.

50

Did you know?

The Spotlight on Arbroath’s Fishing Heritage project opened with a performance by accomplished singersongwriter Dave Ramsay, who premiered a new song, especially written for the event.

This near £110,000 project was part-funded by the North East of Scotland Fisheries Local Action Group, (NESFLAG) supported by funding from Museums Galleries Scotland, Arbroath Common Good Fund and ANGUSalive. The project has resulted in a significantly improved attraction both for our local communities and for tourists, along with the potential to allow increased future community working.

“What I love about Arbroath Signal Tower is the fact it keeps history alive for future generations.

The innovative use of old and new technology showcase how life has evolved in the area.”

Facebook post

Did you know?

Signal Tower Museum was entered into the Trip Advisor Hall of Fame for achieving the Trip Advisor Customer Service Excellence Award for five years in a row.

“Excellent displays and information seeing these items on display, the interactive element too. Well done to everyone involved” Facebook post

Did you know?

From September 2019 to March 2020, the newly refurbished Signal Tower Museum attracted 2,645 visitors.

51

Engage and communicate openly Ensure the Trust’s services listen to our users and respond to their views.

BUSINESS, MANAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT Customer Feedback NGUSalive welcomes and values feedback from our customers to help us learn lessons and drive forward service improvements. Customer feedback is received in the form of compliments, comments and complaints.

In September 2019 revised arrangements to capture and record customer compliments and comments were introduced. This ensures a standardised approach across all our services, activities and events through a single ANGUSalive customer feedback survey and electronic recording system.

A

ANGUSalive branded customer feedback boxes and leaflets are now available at all ANGUSalive venues. An electronic version of the customer feedback survey is accessible via our website or by QR code. The survey is also distributed at ANGUSalive activities and events to help us gather customer views. All information is recorded in the central system allowing data to be easily extracted and analysed for monitoring and reporting purposes.

Managers will take appropriate action such as taking any remedial steps required, contact or respond to customers, sharing feedback with the team, passing on compliments to the team or employee, etc.

In Sports Centres, the Have Your Say display boards are updated with customer feedback received. There are separate arrangements for complaints and the system for recording complaints will be replaced in 2020/21. All customer feedback is reported to the Board of Directors on an annual basis and information is included in the annual report each year. It is also reported to Angus Council’s Audit & Scrutiny Committee.

52

Walking Sports - Feedback in Action Two clubs within Forfar Community Sports Hub approached ANGUSalive’s Community Sports Hub Coordinator in November 2019 with the idea of holding a walking sports programme in Forfar for anyone age 18 and over at their respective club venues. The ANGUSalive team held a wider discussion on the idea with hub members gaining their feedback and insight on running the programme. Following the feedback, which included positives, negatives and concerns, we were able to move the idea forward and start planning a programme.

The programme, which was initially a pilot, was organised over 12-weeks from Friday 7 February 2020 at Forfar Community Campus, with rugby, football, cricket, golf, badminton and netball clubs taking part. Two clubs attended each week to run a 45-minute session. After each session, attendees enjoyed a coffee and chat which added a nice social aspect to the sessions.

The clubs took the lead during the sessions and we received positive feedback from the clubs on running the programme. After each session we asked the participants to review their experience such as the aspects they enjoyed most, what could be improved and how they felt. For some of the participants, this was the first time they had taken part in activity for a number of years. This customer feedback allowed us to change the programme as and when required. We are looking forward to building on this initial pilot to continue running similar programmes, including an outdoor venue to try and attract more attendees and promote the club venues.

The Walking Sports programme not only managed to get more people active but it also featured an important social element where the participants could chat and make new friends and share common goals. The clubs involved were Strathmore Cricket Club, Strathmore Rugby Community Trust, Forfar Badminton Club, Forfar Farmington, Carnoustie Walking Netball and Forfar Golf Club.

How we stack up All figures presented are for the period 1 April 2019 - 31 March 2020.

ANGUSalive Safety, Health & Wellbeing: Incidents reportable to HSE 0 Incidents reportable under RIDDOR 1 % days lost to sickness absence 2.38%

✔

Information Governance Freedom of Information requests Data Protection breaches Environmental Information requests Access to personal information requests Responded to within 20 day timescale

Customer Feedback

(up to 30/09/2020 - moved to Customer Satisfaction Survey)

Compliments Complaints

115 42

✔

14 10 1 2 14

Customer Satisfaction Rating (Survey introduced 01/10/2019)

Very Satisfied Satisfied

62.16% 13.51%

Social Media ANGUSalive Facebook: established in August 2016 To profile ANGUSalive for cross-service promotion of the charity’s five service areas

Total Facebook Likes 2,686 Libraries Total Facebook Likes 2,418

Sport & Leisure Total Facebook Likes 6,921

Museums & Galleries Total Facebook Likes 2,397

Countryside Adventure Total Facebook Likes 3,139

Archives Total Facebook Likes 3,320

Theatre & Venues Total Facebook Likes 2,409

Twitter Followers 2590

Instagram Followers 740

LinkedIn Followers 206

Webster Memorial Theatre & Venues

37,083

Webster Theatre attendances

103,835 Venue attendances

289

Performances, conferences and events at The Webster Memorial Theatre

8,085

Pantomime attendances to Snow White 53

Libraries

342,310 Visitors

217,710

Items borrowed

2,891

Guest Wi-Fi sessions

41,958

Downloads e-resources

22,699 ACCESS Enquiries

33,343

Peoples’ Network sessions

23,964 Attendances at Library activities

13,447

Bookbug attendances

834 Sessions

Museums, Galleries & Archives

33,811 Visitors

3,391

Attendances at Museum, Galleries and Archive activities

3,171

Collection and research enquiries 54

20,232 Collection records reviewed

34

Exhibitions held

2,074

Production of records for consultation

Sport & Leisure Sports Development

43

National Athlete Support Awards (NASA) members

6

75

Angus Club Excellence (ACE) accredited clubs

52

Established Community Sport Hubs

Clubs affiliated to a Community Sport Hub

Sports Centres

1,284,966 Sport centres attendances

7,924 2,673

bACTIVE memberships bACTIVE sales

Countryside Adventure Over

800,000 Total Visitors Over

Over

350

Outdoor Education Sessions

5,000

10,000

Visitors to Festive Fun Weekends

Countryside Activity Attendances

Over

55

Recognise the value of our employees ANGUSalive will value and develop staff and promote a culture of empowerment.

Volunteers Week NGUSalive celebrated Volunteers’ Week in style with a Volunteers’ barbecue and pond dipping at Crombie Country Park on Saturday 5 June 2019. At the event all of

A

ANGUSalive’s volunteers received a certificate from our Chief Executive, Kirsty Hunter, thanking them for making a difference by giving up their valuable time for the charity and greatly contributing across all services and local communities.

As well as helping others, volunteering has been shown to improve volunteers’ wellbeing, boost their confidence and can also help them to gain valuable new skills and

experiences. ANGUSalive takes on volunteers to support their operations on an ad-hoc basis such as for short-term specific events or programmes, and on a more regular basis supporting service areas such as our libraries, archives and our country parks.

ANGUSalive aims to match volunteers to an opportunity that best suits their interests and welcomes enquiries from all ages and abilities. Anyone can join by replying to notices on social media or by contacting one of our culture, sport or leisure facilities. ANGUSalive has recognised its volunteers as part of Volunteers’ Week for the past three years.

“Volunteering with Angus Archives allows me to make a practical contribution to the work of the archives, whilst at the same time expanding my personal knowledge of the county’s history,” Grant Moir, volunteer of 5 years.

56

Mental Health First Aid Training n December 2019 our Health & Wellbeing Lead and Adult & Community Libraries Lead attended a two-day course facilitated by NHS Tayside and Angus Council. The training improved their knowledge and understanding around mental health and wellbeing, as well as be able to identify colleagues who are displaying symptoms of mental health issues and provide appropriate support and signpost as required. It also enabled them to procure suitable library resources for customers.

I

Deaf and British Sign Language training elivered by our partners in Angus Council in March 2020, the Deaf and British Sign Language course is designed to assist our employees to have a better understanding of deaf people, their language and communication needs. The course demonstrated how you can help break down the barriers for deaf people in practical ways, whilst making our service more accessible not only to deaf people, but anyone who has a communication difficulty or for whom English is a second language. Using video presentation, fun activities and group interaction to reinforce the factual content, this course was of practical value to our staff serving the public and an invaluable part of individual continuous professional development.

D

Keep safe initiative at Montrose Library orking in partnership with Police Scotland and ‘I Am Me Scotland’ on the Keep Safe Initiative, Montrose Library was designated an official Keep Safe place in October 2019. This award-winning initiative works to create safe places in the community for anyone feeling lost, frightened or who has been a victim of crime.

W

Two ANGUSalive employees attended an informative training session at Montrose Police Station led by Police Scotland covering the main aims of the scheme and what to do if someone attended the Library looking for help. The main points and procedures of the scheme were then shared with the rest of the team in-house. This was a new partnership for ANGUSalive and one that is much valued by the community and shows the support we can give to help keep our communities safe through dedicated training and partnership working.

Peer Assessor opportunities n January 2020 the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) invited our Adult Library & Communities Lead to be part of a team of three Peer Assessors who visited Glasgow’s Mitchell Library as part of their How Good Is Our Public Library Service (HGIOPLS) QI 2 submission - to assess reports and evidence and confirm self-assessment scores.

I

Introduced in 2014, How Good Is Our Public Library Service (HGIOPLS) framework helps public libraries demonstrate the quality of their services and the impact they have on communities. It takes into account the changing environment in which public libraries operate. It focuses on planning, service delivery and continuous improvement in the same way as other quality frameworks. The opportunity gave our Adult Library & Communities Lead an opportunity for further professional involvement and exposure to a professional body. It also increased awareness of evaluation and standards of good practice within public libraries.

Violence and Aggression Training NGUSalive hosted a series of four half-day training sessions to provide employees with Violence and Aggression Training in partnership with an Organisational Development Facilitator at Angus Council.

The content of the sessions was specifically designed for ANGUSalive to ensure suitability for all our participating service points. A crucial part of the training was to use reallife incidents to ensure colleagues could reflect and explore how they would deal with similar incidents.

A

“It was nice to have a couple of short exercises included within the course to allow us a chance to get up, move around and work in pairs/ small groups,” Employee feedback

A key part of the sessions were the verbal de-escalation tactics (non-physical skills) used to prevent potentially dangerous situations from escalating into a physical confrontation or injury. 50 ANGUSalive employees from Libraries, Museums, Galleries and Archives as well as Theatres and Venues attended the training. Feedback received showed the training was valuable and of benefit to colleagues.

“The facilitator was very knowledgeable in this field and was able to give real life experience to the course,” Employee feedback

57

Case Study Recognise the value of our employees

Taking teams from Good to Great Sport & Leisure

A

NGUSalive has been working with Alliance Leisure since August 2019 to provide training to our employees. Alliance Leisure operate the TA6 brand, TA6 provides sales, marketing and retention services to operators looking to grow income and invest in their employees’ development.

In August 2019, Alliance kicked off their training programme with a session to support newly appointed Operations Supervisors in our Sport & Leisure service. This included tips on how best to embrace their new role, understand sales as well as the importance of customer service in helping attract and retain members.

In September this was followed up by further training which included customer experience training to ensure that there is a SMART process to meet and exceed ANGUSalive’s customer needs and expectations.

In December it was time to engage many of our Operational Leads and Supervisors in providing service the ‘ANGUSalive way’. This included training on how to keep customers coming back (a project to keep everyone at least one extra month), customer service and ANGUSalive’s vision, enquiry handling and launch of the January campaign.

February 2020 saw Alliance carrying out workshops for Operational Supervisors giving them the tools to take their teams from good to great. It included training that upskills talented people to be able to identify opportunities to grow ANGUSalive

whilst developing their own performance and that of their colleagues. The aim was to help them ensure targets were achieved and understand how they can best help motivate and inspire teams. The course included: personal objectives, communication skills, coaching, the feedback formula, accountability and the BOIS technique (Business Aims, Obstacles, Impact and Solutions).

The Head of Training for Alliance, Marina Thomas, who delivered a number of the sessions, was focused on how operational supervisors can coach staff and take responsibility for the results, empowering them to be accountable in the process of inspiring teams to deliver the Angus vision, mission and values.

Marina said: “It was an absolute pleasure for Alliance to be working in partnership with ANGUSalive, and for me personally it was a delight to have had the opportunity to deliver

Did you know?

74% of people surveyed said they ‘valued reception staff speaking to them’ by research conducted by TRP10,000 - the largest piece of retention research within the health and fitness industry

58

training to a group of people who clearly cared about their organisation, the teams that they work with and their community.”

“ANGUSalive has developed a strong vision and defined core values and it was exciting to have the chance to support the team to embed these values and drive through positive change,”

Archie Dick, Principal Officer at ANGUSalive added: “Another set of excellent training sessions for the Operational Leads and Supervisors based in the sports centres focusing on providing excellent customer service the ANGUSalive way.

Paul’s charismatic style kept the audience engaged at all times and gave them the tools and confidence required to provide excellent customer service in a consistent way using a range of simple tools and techniques.”

Paul Woodford, Director of Marketing and Partnerships at Alliance

“The training was informative, challenging and the Operation Supervisors gained a lot of confidence and belief in their management skills,” Grant Donaldson, Operations Lead, ANGUSalive

“The training gave me a buzz and made me feel very enthusiastic about my job,” Shona Fyfe, Customer Advisor ANGUSalive

“Very worthwhile training, giving us a breath of fresh air to return and roll out new challenges, to ourselves, our staff and our customers. It was great to feel part of the bigger picture and have our input into shaping the future of ANGUSalive,” Gus Robb, Operations Supervisor, ANGUSalive

59

Promote use of our spaces as community hubs We aim to offer community venues from which to deliver activities and resources which support inclusion, empowerment, lifelong learning, skills development and literacy.

PAN Disability Football League he PAN Disability league is a series of bi-monthly league competitions for players with a range of disabilities. ANGUSalive’s Forfar Community Campus facilities are the home of the Tayside Pan Disability Football squad. The players come from throughout Tayside and train weekly at the campus enabling them to participate in the programme. The programme is run by Scottish FA as part of their ‘Scotland

T

United’ initiative and is funded by CashBack for Communities. The programme is in a seven-a-side festival format and involves nearly 40 clubs across Scotland. Local coaches are supported and receive free coach education to assist with player development and it is hoped that this will encourage many people to continue to participate in football and to become more involved in community-based activities.

Brechin Library Community Chess Club rechin Library was pleased to welcome a new community chess club in January 2020. The group leader wanted to take advantage of our increased late-night opening and location within the town to hold weekly meetings. The club felt it would be the ideal surrounding for the juniors to meet, as they would be surrounded by all the books and resources we have to offer, as well as get a feel for what’s going on in their local library and more widely, the local community. The group had been very well attended with a dozen mixed-age (primary and secondary) school pupils from Angus schools attending each week. Some of our ANGUSalive library members had even begun joining in too.

B

This new club using Brechin Library demonstrates the value of libraries in providing a multi-purpose functionality within the community through increased opening hours and use of flexible spaces.

60

Art Moves rt Moves, a registered charity, was formed in 2003 to help people in Angus with disabilities to realise their full potential by participation in drama, art and music. Art Moves hired the Webster Theatre in Arbroath as a rehearsal space for two weeks which ended in a devised stage performance of William Shakespeare’s ‘Cymbeline’ in July 2019 with the full theatre team providing technical and front of house support. Cymbeline is set in Ancient Britain (c. AD 10–14) and based on legends that formed part of the Matter of Britain concerning the early Celtic British King Cunobeline.

More than 300 people attended the show and it highlights the important role of theatre venues in enriching drama experiences and providing access to professional theatre spaces in the local community.

A

Brechin Library Dementia Café hen the local Dementia Café found itself without a suitable venue, our Libraries team was delighted to be able to offer a safe and welcoming space within Brechin Library. The group first met for their annual Christmas party in December 2019 and there is a plan to provide additional support to this group with our dementia box resources and seated exercises. This new group demonstrates again the value that libraries can offer the local community – not only providing a suitable space

W

for their meetings and social interaction which is a real lifeline for members who can feel isolated, it also enables ANGUSalive to add value to their sessions by providing additional support where available, enriching their experiences.

61

Get it Loud in Carnoustie Library et It Loud In Libraries’ is a unique award-winning project designed to give people who love music, the chance to see top artists in their local library. ANGUSalive was delighted to get involved in the programme for the first time in May 2019.

G

As part of the programme, the breakthrough Glasgow Band ‘The Ninth Wave’ performed an excellent set from their debut album to a captivated audience in Carnoustie Library. The raw energy of an intimate gig brought an entirely new atmosphere to the library in an unprecedented fashion, as The Ninth Wave got up close and personal with the buzzing Carnoustie crowd.

“Volunteering in Carnoustie Library’s Get it Loud in Libraries live music event was thoroughly inspiring!

We’d say to anyone offered the chance to volunteer here…just do it!”

Volunteers Katie, Becca, Becky, Esme, Megan, Rachel and Naomi.

62

The event was a huge success which attracted around 40 people. Fans enjoyed the intimate space and excellent acoustics in the library.

Seven young volunteers also helped plan, organise and deliver the event.

On the night they were able to contribute in many different ways including getting hands on with the sound system, selling merchandise, photographing the band and taking in tickets. The project demonstrates how adaptable and diverse our venues can be.

“This felt like a very special show: great all ages audience, engaged and enthusiastic staff, brilliantly bright volunteers - just great,” Stewart Parsons from Get it Loud in Libraries

Venue Usage NGUSalive manages a number of halls and spaces across all five of our service areas across the county.

These halls and spaces are available for the local community, partners and external organisations to hire for activities, events, functions, training and performances. During 2019/20 in our Theatres and Venues spaces, there were 1,610 private bookings across all five halls and the Webster Memorial Theatre.

A

The Friends of Brechin Town House Museum held eight successful events during 2019/20 in the beautiful museum gallery space, the topics of their popular talks have included Columba’s Sacred Isle, the History of the Royal Marines from 1664, the Life of Peter Grant, and Brechin Cathedral’s stained glass windows.

Society, who were formed in 1836, making it the second oldest Antiquarian Society in Scotland, and meet every second Tuesday of the month from September to April when speakers from the areas of both History and Natural History give well attended talks.

Montrose Museum welcomes Montrose Natural History and Antiquarian

Arbroath Library has been the unique venue for 28 weddings between April 2019 and March 2020.

Brechin Photographic Society’s annual exhibition is now a fixture in the Brechin Townhouse Museum calendar for April to May each year.

63

Case Study Promote the use of Spaces as Community Hubs

Discovering Ancient Egypt Engagement Programme Museums, Galleries & Archives

M

ontrose Museum created an exciting engagement programme to complement the Discovering Ancient Egypt exhibition - a touring exhibition from National Museums Scotland which was on display at Montrose Museum 8 June – 7 September 2019.

The engagement programme included a debate project with 1st year pupils from Montrose Academy on ‘Should British museums return ancient Egyptian objects to Egypt?’

“Getting hands on with objects is impossible to recreate in the classroom.

Information from museum staff was fantastic,” Teacher feedback

“Thank you for such an engaging and professional trip!”

Teacher feedback

64

We also ran a host of family engagement sessions including ‘Pick up a Piece of the Past’ drop-in object handling sessions as well as children’s workshops ‘Craft Like An Egyptian’, ‘Write Like An Egyptian’, and ‘Dig and Discover’ family activities.

This project enabled the team to reach out to new audiences.

When various classes from five different schools visited, we identified that 70 pupils had never previously been to Montrose Museum.

“Pupils were interested and engaged – asking questions.

Some of these pupils are normally very shy,” Teacher feedback

There were also weekly ‘quiet hours’ for visitors who needed a relaxed museum visit.

The project engaged with 118 primary school children, 14 secondary school children and 26 teaching and support staff. Family activities attracted 133 participants over 10 different activities, with 33 participants taking part in two adult activity sessions. At our Quiet Hour sessions we had 27 visitors over 8 different sessions.

“Really engaging trip and the children got to share and learn new knowledge,”

Did you know?

We attracted a new school to Montrose Museum – Mackie Academy.

“Thanks for Quiet Hour – it makes a big difference,” Visitor feedback form

Teacher feedback

65

Ensure strong, transparent governance and demonstrate community benefit We manage the services, assets and employees in accordance with good charities governance, good business practice, legislative requirements and in accordance with the Articles of Association to ensure strong governance, public accountability and public benefit.

T

o achieve our ambition of becoming an even stronger enthusiastic, customer-focussed, forward-looking organisation equipped for the future, we will ensure we have the right people driving our business. Our people will demonstrate a commitment to delivering our vision for the people of Angus and understand the need to continuously monitor and report our financial performance, allowing us to put every penny back in to the services we deliver. We also work closely with local and national partners, in collaborative planning and delivery as well as sponsorship, to improve outcomes for Angus.

Board Structure he Board of Directors meet on average every eight weeks throughout the year, with the Chief Executive and Senior Managers supported by shared service representatives, to consider the business of the charity. There is also a Finance and Audit Sub Committee to consider items of business and to present formal recommendations to the full Board of Directors.

T

Recruitment, Induction and Training of Directors New Directors are recruited and appointed according to vacancies on the Board. Induction information is provided to all new Directors and 66

on-going training is available to all existing Directors as required.

A number of Board Development sessions are also scheduled every year.

Decision Making Process At a Directors’ meeting, unless a quorum is participating, no proposal is to be voted on. The decisionmaking process by Trustees is that any decision must be either a majority decision at a meeting or a decision of the Directors is taken in accordance when all eligible Directors indicate to each other by any means that they share a common view on a matter. If the numbers of votes for and against a proposal are equal, the Chairperson or other Director chairing the meeting has a casting vote.

Demonstrating Community Benefit With such a comprehensive offering it is impossible to include everything we do across the charity within our review of the year. This report provides an overview of ANGUSalive activities during 2019/20, building on the information contained in our reports from previous years, and demonstrates some of the key benefits delivered to our communities.

Community planning provides a focus for partnership working to improve local services, ensuring that they meet

the needs of local people, especially for those people who need those services most. As an active member of the Angus Community Planning Partnership ANGUSalive contributes to the following community planning priorities for 2017-2020: • Reducing child poverty Eradicate child poverty in Angus by 2030 with activities grouped around three drivers of poverty – income from employment, cost of living and income from social security benefits and benefits in kind.

• Improving mental health and well-being People in Angus can get the right help at the right time, expect recovery and fully enjoy their rights, free from discrimination and stigma.

• Improving accessibility and connectivity The rural nature of Angus presents challenges both in terms of the digital and physical access which if supported will help to reduce inequalities across the whole area.

The proceeding pages will highlight the key items which help us to demonstrate strong transparent governance: • Financial review of the year • ANGUSalive business units

Board of Directors

Kenneth Fraser Independent Director (Chair)

Hannah Whaley Independent Director (Vice-Chair)

Alan Rae Independent Director

Lynn Devine Council Director

Kenneth McKay Independent Director

Colin Brown Council Director

Ronnie Proctor Council Director

Bill Duff Council Director 67

Financial review of the year T

he Trust’s operational surplus (before actuarial adjustments) for the period ending 31 March 2020 was £451,130.

The Company has made annual contributions to the Recreation Renewal & Repair (R&R) Fund for equipment at the end of each financial year since it started trading to ensure resources are available for future investment across its culture, sport and leisure facilities. In addition, to ensure the Company can replace legacy IT equipment in the future, the Renewal & Repair (R&R) Fund for IT was established in 2018.

The ability to perform regular equipment refresh and replacement is essential as this programme of work contributes to the maintenance of the Company’s customer base and facility usage through the provision of a high-quality customer experience. Specific provision has also been made for investment in technology refresh since it is integral to the successful operation of the Company.

In light of the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic however, no R&R Funds contribution was made in 2019/20. This strategic decision was taken in order to retain the maximum available level of general reserves to assist in addressing the challenges and pressures of operating in the COVID-19 environment. The balance in the R&R Funds as at 31 March 2020 is £945,774.

Unrestricted funds carried forward amount to £1,625,911. This reflects the continued financial stewardship of the Directors and Senior Management Team to maintain the Company’s reserves that the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator requires to be set aside on a prudent business operation basis. The Company had no reserves when it started trading on 1 December 2015. Through regular contributions to the Company’s reserves since establishment the Company’s future resilience has been strengthened.

Once the actuarially adjusted pension costs are taken into account, the Trust’s overall financial position reflects net expenditure of £986,870 across all three of the Trust’s business units as described on pages 70 to 71.

Management fee Access fee Grants and Contributions * Sales, Fees and Charges Other Incomes

2019/20 Angus Alive Charity £’000 3,788 0 2,392 4,544 0

2019/20 Angus Alive Trading £’000 0 324 0 148 52

2019/20 Angus Alive Group £’000 3,788 324 2,392 4,692 52

Total Income *

10,724

524

11,248

Staff Costs Property Costs Transport Costs Supplies and Services Other finance costs Angus Council Support Services Total Expenditure

6,985 597 93 896 28 1,832 10,431

272 31 0 63 0 0 366

7,257 628 93 959 28 1,832 10,797

Surplus/ (Deficit) prior to actuarial adjustments *

293

158

451

Actuarial adjustments in line with FRS 102

1,438

0

1,438

Net Surplus/ (Deficit) position *

(1,145)

158

(987)

* Angus Alive Group position is different to combined Angus Alive Charity and Angus Alive Trading positions due to treatment of Gift Aid on consolidation 68

ANGUSalive Income - Charity

ANGUSalive Expenditure - Charity

18% <1% 35%

42%

9% 1%

67%

6% 22%

42% Sales, Fees & Charges

35% Management Fee

22% Grants & Contributions

ANGUSalive Income - Trading

67% Staff Costs

6% Property Costs

1% Transport Costs

9% Supplies and Services

<1% Other finance costs

18% Angus Council Support Services

ANGUSalive Expenditure - Trading

10% 17% 8%

28% 62%

62% Access fee

74%

28% Sales, Fees and Charges

10% Other Incomes

74% Staff Costs

8% Property Costs

17% Supplies and Services

ANGUSalive Group Income

ANGUSalive Group Expenditure

<1%

<1%

34%

17%

9% 42%

1%

67% 6%

21%

3%

34% Management fee

3% Access fee

67% Staff Costs

6% Property Costs

21% Grants & Contributions

42% Sales, Fees and Charges

1% Transport Costs

9% Supplies and Services

<1% Other finance costs

17% Angus Council Support Services

<1% Other Incomes

69

ANGUSalive business units T

he charity has three business units which incorporate service areas as follows: Business Management & Development NGUSalive’s business support, development and marketing function is responsible for supporting the Sport & Leisure, Theatres & Venues, Countryside Adventure service areas and also the services from Museums, Galleries & Archives and Libraries. This unit manages all of the service level agreements for the support services and contracts that the charity has with third party providers.

A

Libraries, Customer & Culture his area is responsible for ANGUSalive Libraries, Museums, Galleries & Archives, and the provision of Angus Council’s faceto-face customer contact service.

ANGUSalive offers a range of traditional and innovative library services through its network of seven full-time burgh libraries, two mobile library vehicles, a home delivery service and an extensive outreach programme.

T

ANGUSalive library members can select from a stock collection of over 170,000 items that includes fiction, non-fiction, local history and reference material for all ages in print and digital formats. Our growing collection of e-books, e-audiobooks and e-magazines provides customer access to material 24/7.

Each library also offers residents and visitors access to the People’s Network computers for internet, 70

email, online learning and Microsoft Office software as well as free guest Wi-Fi for customers with their own devices.

A programme of regular clubs and activities is designed to engage people with reading, literacy, culture and each other. Special events and promotions throughout the year tap in to local and national initiatives.

The quality improvement framework for public libraries in Scotland, How Good is Our Public Library Service (HGIOPLS), was commissioned by the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) to help library managers and staff demonstrate the quality of service provision and the impact they have on communities, with a focus on planning, service delivery and continuous improvement. ANGUSalive actively participates in this self-evaluation and peer review framework, putting forward our services to be assessed against the quality indicators and by providing reviewers as part of an evaluation team for other library services.

Visitors to Angus and residents enjoy a varied programme of temporary and permanent exhibitions, talks and activities in the five museums managed by ANGUSalive.

A well-received programme of fine and contemporary art exhibitions is held at the Meffan Museum & Art Gallery in Forfar, with exhibitions held throughout ANGUSalive gallery spaces. Community art exhibitions also remain popular in our exhibition spaces across ANGUSalive.

ANGUSalive cares for the museum object-based and fine art collections of Angus Council for the people of Angus. Our museum collections include archaeology, social history artefacts, natural history, geology and ethnography.

All the items in our collections have local significance and many have national significance. The fine art collection encompasses over 4,000 paintings, watercolours, drawings and sculptures. We are actively enriching both collections through generous donations, Treasure Trove items and purchases, with objects and art works that contribute to the collections’ historical yet dynamic development.

ANGUSalive manages Angus Archives, caring for historical documents and primary source material relating to Angus. Located in a rural setting at the Hunter Library, Restenneth by Forfar, Angus Archives is a treasure trove of 800 years of the history of Angus and its people. The collections cover Arbroath, Brechin, Carnoustie, Forfar, Kirriemuir, Montrose, Monifieth and many rural areas of Angus. Angus Archives collects, preserves, and makes available the written and photographic heritage of Angus.

Museums, Galleries & Archives and Libraries generate income through book sales, photocopying, activity charges, event charges, training delivery, refreshments, hire of facilities, retail, photo sales, genealogy research and commission from exhibition sales

Sport & Leisure Sport & Leisure incorporates our Sport Centres, Countryside Adventure and Theatre & Venues.

ANGUSalive operates seven sports centres, two high-school pools and a sports programming team as well as five country parks and an outdoor activities programme.

The charity also manages five venues across Angus, our community campus theatres and an art and performance theatre in Arbroath.

Sport & Leisure, Theatre & Venues and Countryside Adventure generate income through our bACTIVE sports membership scheme and pay-asyou-go (bACTIVE lite) attendances, Theatre & Venues events and bookings, activities held within our Countryside Adventure parks and hire of facilities across all services.

ANGUSalive bACTIVE sports membership holders are able to access all of our sports centres under their membership and can book up to seven days in advance for classes. A timetable of regular clubs and activities is on offer for our junior programme, which includes swimming and gymnastics and our adult programme offers group exercise classes including Zumba,Yoga and many LES MILLS® classes. Around 240 adult classes are held each week in ANGUSalive sports centres across the county.

bACTIVE members also enjoy the following benefits: • Free car parking at Crombie and Monikie Country Parks • Free watersports hire at Monikie Country Park • Discounted personal training sessions • Discounted one-to-one swimming lessons • Discounted holiday camps and promotional offers for activities and events Our sports programming team provides support and advice to individuals, clubs, sports associations or groups on a range of issues. They also establish and co-ordinate a number of sport and physical activity opportunities linking local, regional and national programmes across a variety of sports. As part the team’s commitment to developing sport and physical activity throughout Angus, they have adopted the sportscotland Community Sport Hubs initiative, as part of the Scottish Government’s Glasgow 2014 Legacy Plan. The initiative is aimed at supporting local sports clubs to help increase the number of people participating in sport in our local communities.

Glens including guided walks, Young Naturalist Clubs, holiday activity weeks, workshops, watersports, high ropes, wildfowling and volunteer programmes such as Branching Out. We work in partnership with the Cairngorms National Park Association, Forestry Commission Scotland, Scottish Wildlife Trust, Scottish Natural Heritage and many local groups to support conservation action including environmental fieldwork, surveys, activities and consultancy. The team provides a warm welcome and is readily available to help visitors enjoy and care for the countryside.

Our Theatre & Venues have a diverse programme of events ranging from country, folk, comedy and pop music concerts to mediums and the annual panto. Our portfolio of venues includes the Reid Hall in Forfar, which hosts the annual ANGUSalive Sports Awards, as well as the theatres in our two community campuses.

The Countryside Adventure team offers a programme of regular activities in our country parks and the Angus

71

Robbie Stewart Lead Manager, sportscotland

S

port, physical activity and leisure play a critical role in the health and wellbeing of our communities.

Never before has this role been more important as we continue to live through the Covid-19 public health emergency. Looking back on 2019/2020 it feels like a lifetime ago. Covid-19 has turned our lives upside down but the shared priorities and actions we signed up to with ANGUSalive and Angus Council in our 2019-2023 Partnership Agreement have continued to guide our work as we support the people of Angus to live active and healthy lives.

Sport For Life, sportscotlandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s corporate strategy, sets out our vision of an active Scotland where everyone benefits from sport. Our partnership with ANGUSalive ensures that we bring this vision to life for the people of Angus, especially for those who need the most support to access sport and physical activity opportunities.

Our joint commitment to inclusion underpins everything we do.

72

We work closely with ANGUSalive across a number of joint areas as well as directly investing into the development of Community Sport Hubs. It has been great to see Angus Community Sport Hubs continue to grow and thrive. There are now six hubs located across Angus with a range of local sports clubs contributing more than ever to their local communities. Club development is an important shared priority. As a key member of the Tayside & Fife Regional Sporting Partnership, ANGUSalive also work closely with National Governing Bodies of Sport to shape and improve club and community sport both locally and regionally.

Another important shared outcome has been the development of a new Sport and Physical Activity Strategy for Angus. Colleagues from ANGUSalive, Angus Council, NHS Tayside and sportscotland have worked collaboratively to create a strategy that builds on the great work already in place while setting out a

shared vision and ambition for the future.

As part of the ANGUSalive organisational review it was a pleasure to support the recruitment of a number key roles which will ensure the priorities we have all signed up to can be achieved.

Across the calendar year, there were a range of opportunities for ANGUSalive to contribute towards national themes and campaigns.

Active Girls Day, the culmination of Women and Girls in Sport Week in October, saw the coming together of Angus Active Schools and Angus Community Sport Hubs to celebrate female participation in sport and provide a range of well attended sessions getting local girls active. A fantastic effort by all involved!

2019/20 was a hugely successful year for our partnership and one that I have no doubt we will equal and better when we move through and out of the current Covid-19 related restrictions.

Our Mission

W

ith a clear focus on customer service excellence and continuous improvement, our engaged workforce will deliver innovative services providing opportunities for all people to connect with the richness of activity available in Angus.

73

Support Us Become a member - join us at www.angusalive.scot/libraries and www.angusalive.scot/sport-leisure/bactive-memberships Make a donation - use gift aid or corporation tax relief enquiries@angusalive.scot | 01307 492600 Become a corporate partner or sponsor our awards and exhibitions marketing@angusalive.scot | 01307 492600

74

75

ANGUSalive | Head Office | William Wallace House Orchardbank Business Park | Forfar | DD8 1WH enquiries@angusalive.scot | www.angusalive.scot | 01307 492600

ANGUSalive is a company limited by guarantee registered in Scotland No. SC499155 and is a registered Scottish charity No. SC046133.

VAT registered No. 221208657. Registered office: Angus House, Orchardbank Business Park, Forfar. DD8 1AN. All details correct at time of print January 2021